What Is Therapy?
Reshape your thinking patterns to reach the full potential of who you can be.
The Counseling Process guides the individual toward awareness and promotes healthy coping and communication skills. Counseling is a process for people who struggle with mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, etc. Individuals can learn to cope with stress, interpersonal issues, grief, anger issues, and low self-esteem throughout the process of counseling. The counselor merely opens the door to allow the individual to sit with the human experience. Individual counseling is helpful for a variety of reasons, such as increasing an individual’s self-awareness, encouraging self-exploration, identifying boundaries, enhancing communication skills and improving the use of healthy coping skills. The benefits will lead to a shift in behavior for the individual, which often decrease symptoms of mental health issues.
Counseling provides…
Self-Awareness. Throughout the counseling process, the individual and counselor engage in discussion about the issues to be addressed. Counselors often encourage individuals to reflect and delve into their experiences. For example, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a widely used therapy in counseling to increase an individual’s ability to be present in the here and now. It helps the individuals to consider the thoughts, feelings, and sensations occurring in the session. Counselor provides insight into the impact of an individual’s behavior on the desired outcome and the mismatch between what the individual thinks will happen and what actually happens.
Self-Exploration. Counseling also allows individuals to embark on a journey of self-exploration. Who am I? What are my beliefs and values? What makes life meaningful for me? Who are the individuals in my support network? These are all questions counseling puts at the forefront of an individual’s mind.
Identifying Boundaries. Many individuals seek counseling for issues related to their relationships and social skills. More often than not, issues arise from a lack of boundaries. Boundaries are the physical and emotional limitations that help to differentiate the desires, needs, and preferences of one person from another. The most important aspect of establishing boundaries is recognizing where you need them. In order to communicate boundaries, an individual must first seek to identify and to become aware of their own boundaries. For example, how much time do you need away from people in general or your partner each week? How can you prioritize tasks to set boundaries for yourself?
Communication Skills. Counseling can help to improve communication skills, such as assertiveness, emotional intelligence, empathy, active listening, confidence, and respect etc. Assertiveness, involves standing up for one’s own needs while also respecting the needs of others. Communicate skills and style vary between individuals and are very unique. Discovering healthy communication skills help create and maintain healthy relationships.
Healthy Coping Skills. Throughout the counseling process, individuals gain and learn valuable healthy coping skills. For example, individuals learn to use healthy coping skills to untangle unhealthy thought patterns. Many individuals seek counseling because of some forms of anxiety. Healthy coping skills help increases an individual’s ability to identify triggers and unhealthy thoughts related to anxiety or depression, and eventually decrease the symptoms of anxiety. Counselors help individuals to practice ways to reframe their thoughts and consider alternative perspectives.
The first step to increase self-awareness is to ask yourself – What is going on inside me–right now?
How does it all sound? Thinking about the next step? Ready to journey together and learn more about yourself? If you feel as though you would benefit from therapy, feel free to contact us either by phone at - or email hello@mementocounselling.com
