So, You’ve Scheduled Your First Counseling Session…Pt. 2

After your first session is when counseling really begins. It’s more difficult to speak to what this part of of the process will look like because of the variability between counselors and diversity in the presenting problems and goals of each individual client. Every therapist has a different style of work, and each counselor is likely practicing from one or two theoretical orientations. A counselor’s theoretical orientation is what informs the counselor’s understanding of human behavior, human emotions, and the therapeutic process. There are many theoretical orientations, and if this is something you’re curious about I recommend you ask your counselor what theory they work from. This can help to give you insight on what your counseling will look like. You can also stay tuned to this blog for a future post going over some common theoretical orientations.

I practice from a humanistic, client-centered theory. The goal of humanistic psychology can be understood as follows, “to unveil the “guts,” core, or essence of what it means to be vitally human” (Schneider, et al, 2015, p. 57). Humanistic counseling also emphasizes an understanding of the whole-person, and avoids the temptation to view aspects of mental health as standardized or medicalized. Therefore, avoiding a standardized diagnose and treat model of therapy. This resonates with me because in my time as a mental health professional, there is no one way to treat mental health issues - there are many ways and some work wonderfully for one person, and not at all for the next. This is where it becomes so important to understand the whole person. I don’t feel I can understand someone’s mental health issues unless I understand them in the context of their life and experiences. This is also why I believe firmly in the client-centered idea that the client is the expert of their own life. Along with these two theories, I also utilize other therapeutic approaches to assist each individual client with their unique goals. For example, some client’s will greatly benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and others from an Intuitive Eating framework - I maintain some flexibility here so I can best serve my clients and their unique needs.

This brings me to my next point regarding the process of therapy as a whole. This is so, extremely variable. Therapy can last for 3 months or for years. The point between the beginning and end of therapy is where all the work and growth happens and it’s one of those things that has to be seen or experienced to really understand. This is your cue to find yourself a therapist and experience this for yourself!

To wrap this post up, I’ll speak very briefly about what the ending of therapy looks like. In a perfect world, ending therapy is a collaborative decision between client and counselor. However, our world is not a perfect one. There are many reasons why therapy comes to an end, and there are many feelings that come with this from both client and therapist - it’s too much to get into in this post but be on the lookout for a separate blog post diving deeper into this.

Disclaimer: The information available on and through the blog on juniper-counseling.com is presented in summary form as a supplement to, and NOT a substitute for, the knowledge, skill, and judgment of qualified psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians and health care professionals. Should you have any physical/mental health or medical questions or concerns, please consult a physician, psychotherapist or other health care professional.