How to Get the Most Out of Counseling: Before the Session

Hello beautiful soul! Today I want to talk more generally about counseling and share with you some of my tips for getting the most out of counseling. Counseling is a commitment in terms of time and finances and has the potential to pay you back in quality of life many times over, but to get the most out of it, there are certain things that I highly recommend you do. [These are things that some of my most successful clients do regularly.] ......Read more below

Today I am going to share tips for things you can do before you start counseling and before sessions. In my next two blogs, I will share things you can do during and following sessions to get the most out of counseling.

1. Look for a counselor who is the right fit for the specific issue you are dealing with.

I highly recommend that when choosing a counselor, you find someone that specializes in the issue you are seeking help for. Brain surgeons are known to be super smart, but that is not who you’re going to go to if you need heart surgery. In the same way, I don’t recommend going to someone who specializes in trauma if you are looking for help with anxiety.

If you are struggling with anxiety, seek a counselor who specializes in anxiety.

When someone specializes in a certain area of mental health treatment, they have spent a lot of time learning about that particular area, including focusing the attention of their continuing education on their specialty. If you work with a counselor who only has a general knowledge of the situation you are dealing with, you likely won’t get as much out of it and won’t go as far in treatment. This is particularly important for mental health issues that aren’t as commonly studied among counselors, such as panic disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

2. Have a clear picture of what you want to get out of counseling

It is very helpful to have a good understanding of what you are looking to gain from counseling prior to starting with your counselor. If you do not have a clear picture of your goals then your counselor is not going to know which direction to take your sessions. This means that they could latch onto something you mentioned early in your time together as something they feel may be important but may not be that important to you. As an example, if you tell your counselor in your early sessions that you aren’t getting along with your parents and you are experiencing stress at work and you are having social anxiety when you go to parties, the assumption might be made that you want to work on all three of these areas. But it is possible that you feel fine currently about your relationship with your parents and your work situation, but are primarily concerned about the social anxiety you are experiencing. If this isn’t stated to your counselor then she might work with you on the areas you aren’t as concerned about

Being clear about your counseling goals helps your counselor to be on the same page with you

If your counselor is focusing on areas that are less important to you, it will likely result in you feeling very discouraged about the counseling process. I will add that counselors should actively be working to understand your primary goals, but it definitely helps them if you have the clearest picture possible of what you want to spend time discussing. If you want to get the most from counseling, I recommend that you tell your counselor at the first session, as specifically as possible, what you hope to gain from your work together.

3. Take notes throughout the week of things that you want to talk about in your next session.

Sometimes really significant issues happen the day after your last counseling appointment and you might not have another appointment scheduled for a week or two. It is very easy to forget about these situations by the time of your next session. A solution is to be mindful of things that come up that are important to you to discuss in counseling and write quick notes about them after they occur.

Keep simple notes of important events in a place you will remember to review

An easy way to do this is through having a notes page on your phone dedicated to things you want to discuss in counseling sessions (just be sure to lock your phone if someone can access it if there are things you would prefer to keep confidential). Keeping track of things you want to discuss at sessions helps to ensure that you won’t miss an opportunity to discuss items that are important to you.

So, these are three of the things you can do to get the most out of counseling, focusing on things you can do before your sessions. Again, please read (or watch) the next two blogs for additional steps you can take to get the most from your counseling experience.

**Do you think I could be your “right fit” counselor? Be sure to set up a free 20-minute phone consultation at 281-746-9826 or kristen@upliftingcounsel.com. I provide counseling to clients in Texas and Oregon and would love to talk with you about the possibility of working together