How Can Counseling Help?
world is in your hands?
Counseling can help!
In 1994, Consumer Reports surveyed nearly 3,000 people who had been in therapy during the previous 3 years. Over 90% reported significant long-term improvement.
How does talking to a professional lead to that kind of long-term improvement? How can a counselor be more effective than a caring family member or friend?
Here are some thoughts:
A family member or friend is too emotionally involved.
When a loved one offers advice, it is often met with anger or rebellion.
A family member may be part of the problem. Just as a medical doctor can prescribe things to improve your physical health, a professional counselor prescribes activities to improve mental health.
The average person has no idea why they feel the way they do, nor do they have a clue as to how to change behavior.
In today's isolated world, many people don't have close family to advise and counsel.
Counselors provide concrete strategies grounded in theory, much of which is research based, in order to increase the likelihood of desired behavioral change.
Counselors are experts in human behavior; they teach clients healthy ways to cope with life's stressors, how to cultivate healthy relationships or repair strained ones.
If one could easily change negative, unproductive or destructive behavior on one's own, our world would be a very different place.
A survey published in the June '05 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry states almost half of Americans will have a mental illness sometime in their lives. When we feel physically ill, we see a doctor. There is no shame or stigma in doing that. It is time we view mental health in that same light.