What is Counselling?

Genuineness, Non-Judgmentality, and Empathy are the ground for which counselling thrives on.

Counselling is a theory-based, skilled, and principled use of therapeutic relationship to facilitate emotional acceptance and growth, self-knowledge, and the optimal development of personal resources. Counselling meets the needs of a wide spectrum of people who may be concerned with mental wellness, personal growth, interpersonal conflict, career, and psychopathology. It is a service sought by people in distress or in some degree of confusion who wish to discuss and resolve these in a relationship, which is more confidential and disciplined than friendship, and less stigmatizing than helping relationships offered in traditional medical or psychiatric settings. At heart, counselling involves working with relationships, which helps clients find meaning and make adjustment in important areas such as intimate relationships, families, schools, and careers. (The British Association for Counselling, 1986).

How is the Process of Counselling and Counsellor’s Role?

Counselling is an egalitarian and collaborative process that is focused on client’s goals and involves both choice and change, through which the client is provided with an opportunity to work towards living more satisfyingly and resourcefully.
My role as the counsellor is to create a safe and warm space for you to feel welcomed and comfortable to be open to learning and healing together. I am here to facilitate you to work in ways that respect your values, personal resources and capacity for self-determination. I am trained to address personal development, relationship building, and mental health issues by implementing eclectic therapeutic applications of cognitive, affective, behavioural, and systemic interventions. Together, my hope is that we can bring light to your current concerns, and discover new strategies that may contribute to your problem resolution and restore to a peaceful state of mind.

What to expect in sessions?

Thank you for considering counselling! I realize starting counselling is a major decision and that you may have many questions regarding this foreign field. I thought that demystifying the process might help set you at ease before you step into my office.

  • The option is yours if you would like to directly book your first session online through my booking site, or you are welcome to send me an email to ask any questions concerning therapy to see if we are a good fit. New clients are required to book online eventually in order to fill out contact information and sign the electronic consent form online. After your online booking, you will receive a Confirmation Email containing the detailed instruction to my office, and as well as an online Consent Form to be completed prior to our session. If you haven’t yet, then we will do it in the office.
  • At your first session, typically 90 minutes long, I will greet you and go over the Informed Consent Form with you, which outlines your rights as a client and my legal and ethical boundaries as counsellor pertaining limits of confidentiality. After the paperwork is taken care of, the time is yours to let me on board of your concerns and their impact on your life. I use the first session to get to know you and assess your needs better and at the end, we will collaborate on prioritize a few goals together. Correspondingly, I may leave you with homework such as worksheet, somatic exercise, activity, reading, or resource to look into, and then book our next appointment if needed.
  • Over the course of counselling, you may choose to meet weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on your needs and availability. The duration of therapy ranges from as little as 8 sessions to a year or more of long-term arrangement depending on your progress. Each session will likely begin with a general check in on how you have been, the progress you have made on your goals, and review on any homework from last session. Based on your presenting concern and the topic of our exploration, I would suggest working together on a variety of interventions to deepen our discussion, foster emotional acceptance, and promote insight discovery

 

Counselling has been described as a continuous process cycling within 5 stages:
Stage 1. Establishing rapport or therapeutic relationship
Stage 2. Accessing or defining of the presenting problem
Stage 3. Identifying and setting goals
Stage 4. Choosing and initiating interventions
Stage 5. Follow-up and adjust strategy or Planning termination of therapy

Is Counselling Effective?

Yes! Robust and consistent statistical evidence has proven counselling’s effectiveness in significantly improving the overall mental health state of clients coming from a diverse background and over a variety of issues. Research shows that competent counsellors using empirically based interventions, in the majority of cases, have helped clients successfully approached towards their goals. If you are curious about counselling but are new and unsure, you can reach out for a brief consultation to get a sense of what you might be are getting yourself into. Please don’t hesitant to reach out to me for a free consultation session. Trust yourself and get the support you need today. You would be grateful for your courage to take on this important step of self-care!

Read more at
https://www.counseling.org/docs/public-policy-resources-reports/effectiveness_of_and_need_for_counseling_2011.pdf?sfvrsn=2
http://www.pacfa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/PACFA-Supportive-Counselling-literature-review-May-2014-Final.pdf
http://www.healthsurvey.com/counselingeffectiveness.htm