Counselling is about change and growth - becoming the person you want to be so that you can lead your life to your full potential - without anxiety, depression, negative beliefs, anger or whatever it is that is limiting you. In order to do this, you need to be curious and without judgment, especially about yourself. The more curious you are about you, the more you will get out of therapy.
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“Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.”
The aim of Counselling is to help you identify, and change if necessary, those behaviours and modes of thinking that are contributing to your current unhappiness. Counselling works with conscious difficulties, anxieties, or distress. It can also look more deeply into the underlying causes of our inability to live life as fully as you would like. It can be a life-changing journey. MAC Counselling and Wellbeing offers confidential counselling to individuals, couples, families and groups. We also work with adults and teenagers (over 16 years of age).
Often when someone picks up the phone that is the most courageous part of the process – it’s a huge step in itself.
It is usual to feel anxious when you first come to see a counsellor – anxious about what they will be like; what is expected of you; how you might be helped; how long it will take; or even if you like the counsellor. Anxiety is absolutely normal, you are about to explore the most intimate details of yourself so you’ve got to trust and like the person who is sitting in front of you.
We will start by asking what has brought you to counselling.
Once you have told us why you are seeking help, we may ask you why now? Once you have told us a bit about why you are there it is likely that we will ask some questions about your life.
These questions are usually about your birth family, your relationships with your parents, siblings or any other carer, your current family members such as husband/wife/separated/divorced, children, etc.
Although the questions may often seem irrelevant to your current situation, they are important pieces of information for us in formulating a diagnostic picture of you. This also gives us an idea of how to help, how long it may take and what direction the therapy is likely to go.
During this process, you will, of course be making note of whether you like your counsellor; whether you like the way they work and whether you think you could work with them. Without actually being able to form a therapeutic relationship, the therapy/counselling will not work. For this reason, we usually end the first session by asking whether you have any questions for us.
Last but not least, we will discuss the terms and conditions of our work together so that you know how to get hold of us in an emergency, our cancellation policy, times when we work, etc. Cost is also something that we will discuss at the first meeting.
Medical insurance companies do sometimes pay for counselling but usually for only one type of therapy and for a short period of time.
When the first session ends, it is usual to make the next appointment. Making the decision to seek professional help for anything to do with your wellbeing is a brave and courageous step.
I hope this gives you some idea of what to expect after you take that initial step to call or email us.
.....every journey begins with the first step.
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