How counseling works?

The short answer is it depends. How counseling works depends on a variety of factors: such as the type of counselor you are working with, where you are doing your counseling, and finally, what goals you and your counselor agree to work on together.

There are many types of counseling professionals who work with people. Some counseling professionals specialize in specific issues, such as anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and couples/relationship counseling. At the same time, how a counselor was trained will determine how they work with people. For instance, Cognitive Behavioral Therapists (CBT) will focus on how your thinking impacts your behavior and emotions. An Emotionally Focused Therapist (EFT) will focus on how your emotional response to situations impacts your life and how this might need to be modified. A psychodynamic therapist is more apt to focus on your past and how old childhood wounds might affect you in the present. There are many different types of counseling, and they all work a little bit differently.

Where you are working with a mental health professional is going to impact how counseling works as well. For instance, text-based counseling online is far different than working with a counseling professional face to face in an office-based setting; one is neither better than the other. It just requires different expectations and skillsets. You need to determine what type of counseling setting is most comfortable for you…do you want to work with a counselor from home, in an office setting? How comfortable are you with technology? These are all important questions to ask yourself when it comes to counseling.

Finally, you and your counseling professional will discuss what you want from counseling, that is, the goals you want to accomplish while working with that person. Some goals are going to be very short-term, while other goals are going to be long-term. Based on their clinical experience and judgment, a counseling professional can give you an idea of how long change might take depending on the specific goals you want to accomplish while in counseling.