Counselling

LegacyUser

Hi, I'm going for my first counselling session tomorrow and I'm a bit scared I suppose, I really don't know what to expect or how it works or anything. Can anyone give
me a heads up of what to expect or is there anything I should know or do beforehand.thanks

Victor

You don't say why you are going, but the first session would generally be introductions, filling in background, ground rules and explaining where you are coming from. After that its talking about your feelings and discussing how to move on.

LegacyUser

hi op here,
the reason im going is that at the moment my life feels like crap, feels like it has no direction, everything seems to be going wrong and i can see no end to these problems.
i have always tried dealing with these problems myself, i would consider myself a very logically thinking person so iv always felt i can work these out but recently i found myself on the receiving end of rejection from a girl i am crazy about(very cliche i know). i then found myself in my room alone with a bottle of whiskey, after a few swigs i stopped and looked at myself and realised what i was doing so went straight to a website and sent an email and made an appointment. iv realised that this thing with the girl is the straw that broke the camels back and i just cant deal with all these,what feel like mounting, problems

sajama

Hi OP,

I also went to counselling for similar reasons and that first session was very daunting. After a few groundrules etc, as Victor said above, it will be up to you to do the talking - at first it will probably be a bit overwhelming but I know once I started taling I just didn't stop and the hour flew by! This was a start in helping me feel better, knowing that I put it all out there and was ready to accept help. My one piece of advice is not to hold any thoughts/feelings back. My counsellor told me that if I didn't feel I could tell her everything after one or two sessions, that I should tell her and she could refer me to another counsellor, because there's no point in talking to a counsellor that you don't trust/can't open up to.

Best of luck with the counselling OP and hope you're feeling better soon - it took me a while, but you will get there - there were times that I really didn't want to go to my sessions, I felt so fed up of talking and talking (and crying and crying in my case!), but always persist - it will be worth it in the end

LegacyUser

I have been to counselling too, twice indeed. usually the first session would be asking the reason you considered counselling. introduction etc.

yes, the most important thing is to accept help and open yourself up to the counsellor. ask for transfer if you think the counsellor and you can't get on well.

all the best. it's good to go for counselling. you would understand yourself better. and you would learn a new pattern to break the poor cycle you are in.

steddyeddy

Victor wrote: »

You don't say why you are going, but the first session would generally be introductions, filling in background, ground rules and explaining where you are coming from. After that its talking about your feelings and discussing how to move on.

im new to boards but i think thats a + 1 as in i agree.

i recently started going to consoling and after all that victor said the next step is talking about how you feel as in a lot of my sessions i dont know where to begin, so he (my therapist) says well how do you feel right now and you sort of go from there. he will try and build a trusting relationship with you and you will go from there.