What is Mental Health Counseling?
Mental health counseling is different for everyone and includes lot of different modalities, but most LPCs will be using talk therapy. In talk therapy you will talking or processing to come to a greater degree of wellness by exploring yourself and setting emotional goals.
Counseling is ultimately about wellness, so let's start with a definition.
"Wellness is a continual process toward optimal functioning through a dynamic balance among all aspects of an individual"
In simple terms: No one is perfect, so everyone could be more well. I think about this like stairs. Counseling can be a place where you work towards your personal goals to feel like a better version of yourself, and get to the next stair.
It is about growth and lasting change which may require talking about the past or exploring repeating patterns in your life. This may involve discomfort or your counselor challenging your current way of being. This is important because it is also validating and a place to feel accepted.
Benefits of Mental Health Counseling
Counseling provides a space to meet your unique goals and become unstuck from patterns and issues that have weighed you down in the past. It has a set of circumstances we don't often find in the real world of relationships for a variety of reasons.
Instant intimacy: You are allowed to be fully known in a space without first making sure the relationship is safe and secure and the person is safe and secure. This is only available in this context with licensed professionals who abide by a professional and ethical code.
Confidentiality: Although their are limits to confidentiality, counseling provides a space where information about you will not get back to the people you are talking about. You don't complicate friendships or family relationships by processing tricky emotional information with a counselor including traumatic events or a heavy diagnoses. This is sometimes the equivalent of getting time and space to write a text message instead of having an off the cuff reaction with someone. You can process a conflict long before you have it.
Impartiality: Counselors do not have an investment in your lived experience the way your family, friends, or a spouse might. They can give you honest feedback you can take or leave. They don't need you to change. If you don't accomplish your goals it is ok to your counselor. They will still like you. This frees you to go at your own pace.
Non-judgmental: A space to process without the weight of judgement is freeing.
Customizable: Your goals and time together can change on the fly. If something big comes up you aren't stuck to your original set up. Counseling looks very different session to session and person to person. This helps you get the most out of your time in therapy.
Empathy: Not everyone is lucky enough to have true emotional support in their lives. Spouses, friends, and family may fall short when what you need is someone to be with you in your pain. Counselors are trained to enter into that pain with you.
Supportive relationship that is all about your needs: I can't think of another relationship that is solely for you and your needs as an adult.
It ends: If you outgrow your counselor or find that you have learned all you can from them or you aren't feeling the growth in the relationship you can end the relationship and find a different professional. We can't often pick and choose the relational vibe and strengths of the people you are around, but in counseling you can.
Who could benefit from Mental Health Counseling?
The short answer is...everyone...at different times in their lives.
Sometimes you may choose to go to counseling to grow as a person because you are wanting to leave old patterns behind or make personal progress towards an important goal to you. This is a big reason people go to premarital counseling.
It is also really normal to go through times when you feel less well as a person or notice you just "feel off". This could be feeling more anxious or not sleeping or feeling down and not being able to shake it. Sometimes that is because something difficult in the past or present has happened in your life or because a life transition has been harder than expected. Hello Pandemic. It could also be postpartum or after a big promotion or getting out of college and entering the workforce. It might be to process a big event in your life.
It is normal to need support. Everyone goes through times when that support is not as extensive as they need or they are re-growing their support networks. This is a great time to include a counselor.
The truth is you don't have to face hard times alone.
That might be confusing for some. When the treatment of mental health first started it was really only meant for the severely mentally ill, but as our knowledge has grown we have learned more about how to help people.
In some ways, it is still like going to a local doctor. Some doctors treat the severely physically ill who need treatment or surgery right away, but there are also doctors that treat the everyday illness that comes with living in the world. Just like walking on a broken bone makes the pain worse over time and can make the care needed more extensive, waiting to go to a counselor until a normal issue transforms into something more severe can make care longer and potentially less effective.
It is okay to ask for help when you need it. That doesn't make you broken. It makes you brave.
You are valuable and deserve care.
Comments