About Individual Counseling

Individual counseling assists you in clarifying your concerns, examining the solutions you have tried, and developing new coping strategies. During the first meetings, your counselor will gather information about your personal, intellectual, and emotional style, as well as your relationships and academic status. This assists your counselor in determining which counseling strategies will be most helpful to you. Using this information, you and your counselor will develop goals for counseling. As counseling progresses, new goals may be formed as well. The counseling process may include learning new problem-solving or coping skills, increasing self-understanding, exploring life patterns, and gaining a better sense of yourself.

 

It is important to think about what you would like to gain from your counseling sessions. It may be helpful to jot down a list of events, relationships, and feelings that you think are related to your concerns. Take time before each session to think about what you want to accomplish during that meeting. This is your counseling process, so be active in deciding how to use the time. As issues or feelings (either positive or negative) come up during counseling, it may be beneficial to share them with your counselor.

 

How does Individual Counseling work?

When people are troubled with painful life situations, Individual Counseling can be a way to make significant changes.

 

Often, people are in pain because of "baggage" from the past. They wish to discuss these experiences with a caring therapist without the involvement of other family members-- and without burdening them.

 

Individual Counseling allows this flexibility. More importantly, Individual Counseling is an opportunity to be really listened to and understood.

 

How long does Individual Counseling take?

Our approach is a solution oriented approach. We take your past history into account, but that does not mean we focus only on the past. Your background, however, may shed light on current feelings, opinions, reactions, preferences, fears, and so on.

 

Understanding of the past may give empowerment to the present.

 

Getting out of pain now is always the main focus of solution oriented therapy, so it is usually brief. Some people may need only one session; others, more, but you are always in charge of deciding how many sessions you want. Individual Counseling

 

What about goals?

Your job is to decide what is not working and how you wish it was. Sometimes when people are really hurting--that is about all they can decide. Your Counselor's job is to help you turn those wishes into small, do-able goals. The "art" of counseling is to notice themes and patterns, see things from a slightly different angle, and remember seemingly unrelated events that may be important.

 

We have counselors who specialize in:

• depression and or/anxiety
  
• making important decisions
  
• eating disorders
  
• alcohol and substance dependency
  
• separation and divorce
  
• re-marriage issues/blended family issues
  
• grief and loss
  
• post abortion issues
  
• loneliness
  
• feeling overwhelmed
  
• parenting issues
  
• feelings of hopelessness
  
• adult children issues
  
• empty nest syndrome
  
• stressed out families
  
• panic attacks
  
• agoraphobia
  
• stress
  
• adoption issues
  
• physical illness and pain
  
• caring for an older parent
  
• anger management
  
• men's issues
  
• internet addiction
  
• pornography addiction
  
• feelings of inadequacy
  
• job loss
  
• financial stress
  
• communication skills
  
• in-law issues
  
• sexual issues
  
• different spiritual inclinations