Can Professional Counseling and Psychotherapy Help You?
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Can Professional Counseling and Psychotherapy Help You?
Gina Troisi is a licensed therapist in Norwalk, CT, where she specializes in providing couples and marriage counseling. For more information on Gina’s practice and about how counseling and psychotherapy can help you, visit http://www.ginatroisi.com.
If you’ve been considering professional counseling or psychotherapy but are unsure whether or not they can help, you’re not alone.
Unfortunately, despite the advances that have occurred over the past half-century in our understanding of the importance of mental health, our culture still seems to place less emphasis on one’s mental health than it does on the physical variety. This has led to a social stigma being attached to counseling and psychotherapy that has proved difficult to overcome.
Nevertheless, countless people who lead successful, fulfilling, and happy lives have only been able to do so thanks to the innumerable benefits of speaking with a counselor or psychotherapist on a routine basis.
Seeking the help of a professional counselor or therapist is nothing to be ashamed of — you don’t need to be “crazy.” In fact, if you’re struggling with persistent emotional difficulties, challenging life events, or self-destructive behavior patterns, seeking the help of a qualified mental health professional is a sign of personal responsibility, wisdom, and strength.
Professional counseling and psychotherapy have been shown to be extremely effective at helping individuals, couples, children, and families overcome a wide range of emotional, behavior, situational, interpersonal, relationship, and communication difficulties.
However, even if you know you need help, actively seeking assistance can be a difficult and anxiety-provoking process… especially if you’re unsure what to expect from counseling and therapy.
How Do Counseling and Psychotherapy Work?
When we are children, we are fascinated by the world around us. Curiosity compels us to figure out how everything works and we look to the adults in our lives for many of the answers.
If our role models are emotionally healthy, they provide ideas, perspectives, values, and beliefs that can help us grow into emotionally healthy and happy adults.
On the other hand, if our role models held ideas, perspectives, and belief systems that brought them unhappiness, then this is what they end up teaching us and what we learn to adapt to and create in our own lives as we grow older.
Because these interpretations and adaptations are made when we are children, they become part of our unconscious beliefs about how the world works. By their very definition, we’re unaware of them and how they are impacting our lives in the present.
In order to overcome the persistent emotional, relationship, or behavioral difficulties we’re facing, we need to change the unhelpful beliefs that lie at the root of our problems. And changing these beliefs requires bringing them from the unconscious into our consciousness.
However, making something conscious that is unconscious is not an easy process, especially if attempted alone. By listening to you and working with you, a professional counselor or therapist can help you recognize and change the thoughts, ideas, perceptions, and beliefs that are causing difficulties and keeping you from living a happier, more fulfilling life.
Talking with Your Counselor or Therapist
Professional counseling and psychotherapy are sometimes known as “talk” therapy. This is because a majority of the work that goes on in therapy is achieved through the relationship you create with your therapist by talking through the situations and difficulties you face with him or her.
That having been said, it’s not uncommon for people who’ve never attended counseling or therapy to be a bit uneasy about the idea of disclosing their problems to a complete stranger.
You should always remember that your counselor or therapist is a professional whose job is to remain unbiased and non-judgmental. While professional therapists will typically ask quite a few questions, you only have to tell them what you’re comfortable discussing and they’re only role is to listen and help you.
Fortunately, once you get started, you’ll probably be surprised by how easy it is to talk with your counselor and by how much you want to talk about. As you develop a greater degree of trust in your relationship with your therapist, you’ll likely find yourself talking more and more. This is a positive, as the more you’re willing to disclose to your counselor the better they’ll be able to help you work through the challenges you’re facing.
The process of talking about your thoughts, feelings, and relationships can help you learn more about yourself, put your problems in perspective, and understand how the various aspects of your personality and life interact with each other.
Thus, “talk” therapy can help you begin the process of learning about yourself and how to live in a way that brings joy and meaning to your life.
Is Counseling or Therapy Right for You?
If you’ve never been to counseling or therapy before, you should approach it with an open mind.
A professional counselor is not going to be able to solve your problems overnight or tell you what you need to do to feel better after a session or two. We’re all unique individuals and the solutions to our problems are as individual as the problems themselves.
That being said, if you’re committed to learning more about yourself and putting in the time and effort necessary to create positive, lasting change in your life, professional counseling and therapy can help you find the answers within yourself that can help you move forward in life with confidence and optimism.
Looking For More Information?
Make sure to explore other articles in the Alternative Medicine category or contact us to suggest a website or a service to review.
