Individual Counseling and Psychotherapy
The main goal of counseling is change toward well-being. Individual counseling helps you identify the change that is needed in your life, helps you find the path to change, and supports you in making the changes you need.
Areas in which individual counseling can be very successful include:
- Depression, anxiety, low-self-esteem, lack of confidence
The causes of these conditions are highly individual. Sometimes they come from within, as when we have internalized unrealistic expectations, hurtful messages from the past, or distorted perceptions. Sometimes they are external, a sign that more effective methods are needed for dealing with stress or dysfunction around us. Whatever the origins, multiple scientific studies have shown that "talk therapy" can create the same observable changes in biological brain function as medication.
- Indecision, perfectionism, procrastination
Counseling follows multiple tracks for these conditions, rooting out their hidden causes while teaching here-and-now behaviors to cut them short. You can overcome those seemingly unconquerable tasks, whether finishing a dissertation, filing past-due taxes, or just cleaning out the garage. Counseling gets results.
- Social isolation and loneliness
Human beings are a social species. Meaningful social relationships with those around us are essential to our good health. Counseling for social isolation and loneliness often deals with a combination of negative self-perceptions and the practicing of social skills that help "break out" of the bubble that can seem to cut you off from other people.
- Recovery from death of a loved one
The fact that grief is a natural part of life does not make it an easy thing to bear alone. The rush of modern life, the demands of work, the expectations of our entertainment-centric culture... These things rob us of some of the rituals and the emotional time and space our ancestors applied to mourning. Grief counseling makes it easier to move through the phase of letting go and into the phase of fond remembrance.
- Recovery from divorce or breakup
Divorce can be as distressing as a death in the family, and sometimes more so. There is a loss of companionship, loss of intimacy, and loss of the hope we once invested in a relationship. The one person to whom we may have been most likely to turn for support in such a time is the one who is no longer available. To make things worse, the divorce itself may have brought out the worst in our ex-partners or ourselves, damaging our ability to think and feel clearly. Divorce counseling provides a time and a place for proper healing. It helps ensure that you recover your dignity, your self-respect, and your balance, so that new attachments won't be tainted with baggage from the old.
- Self-doubt, low self-esteem, lack of identity
There can be many reasons for a low self-image or an unclear sense of personal identity. It may be the result of one critical moment that we magnify and replay for the rest of our lives. It may be the result of a distorted perception or unprocessed hurt from the past. Or sometimes our whole development as a person was put on hold to satisfy the excessive needs of an immature parent. Personal therapy can get to the root of problems like these and build confidence and direction.
- Problems from the past which won't go away
Trauma and abuse are unfortunately common in modern life. For some of us they seem to wash over like water, while others suffer lasting pain. Often those around us don't understand why we can't let go. Counseling can heal past trauma. It provides a safe and supportive environment where you can unlock the hurt, deal with it at the speed that's right for you, and let it out of your life. We can't change our past, but we can break its power on the present. It doesn't have to be relived forever.
Individual counseling combines techniques from the fields of human development, coaching, psychology, and traditional psychotherapy to heal past wounds and promote present growth. It's a practical and effective way to create change in your life.