Areas of Focus
How Can Counseling Help?
Asking these questions helps determine a rational starting point:
- Have I tried changes on my own or with other therapists and they failed?
- Have I acted in problematic ways that I never intended?
- Have I lived in ways that cause my problems to persist?
- Have I been experiencing intense shame and regret that interferes with life?
- Have I been experiencing deep sadness and depression that interferes with life?
- Have I been experiencing anxiety and worry that interferes with life?
- Have I been confused, pushing people away?
- Has someone I love encouraged me to seek counseling?
Common Areas of Focus in Counseling
- Anxiety and Depression
- Grief, Loss and Bereavement
- Managing Stress and Change
- Family, Parenting and Divorce
- Anger Education and Management
- Relationship Aggression and Abuse
- Behavioral and Substance Addictions
- Phases of Life and Developmental Change
- Academics, Education, Employment, Career, Finances
What is the purpose of Counseling?
- Counseling brings ways of learning, helping to improve emotional, mental, relational and spiritual wellbeing
- Counseling helps develop greater understanding of the nature of the mind, and integrating experiences in life
- Counseling regards people as possessing within themselves an innate natural drive toward growth and living.
- Counseling uses learning processes for greater understanding of cognition, perception, behavior and emotion
What is a Counseling versus a Psychotherapy mindset?
- Language matters. Counseling and Psychotherapy are terms often used interchangeably, however, there are important differences for you to consider:
- Counseling is a practice of helping people make concrete decisions and plan practical actions to improve their well-being, resolve crises, prevent and alleviate distress and difficulty with adjustments, and support capacities and abilities to function in life.
- Counseling assumes the individual is already a generally healthy person seeking directive change and growth.
- Psychotherapy, or psychological therapy, is the treatment of mental or emotional disorders or of related bodily ills by psychological means, for the purpose of assisting people to modify their behaviors, cognitions, emotions, and other personal characteristics. There can be an expectation therapists will ‘do something’ although the specific details and exact workings of ‘something’ may not be transparent, and seem esoteric or vague.
- The words “Therapy” and “Psychotherapy” refer to healing, and the treatment or cure for an injury or illness, assuming people are generally unwell. There is a risk here for pathologizing experiences of ordinary human pain and suffering which can naturally propel growth and development as part of a greater process of living out life. It my practice to regard people in counseling as capable, rather than helplessly diseased, mentally ill or wounded.
