What To Expect If You Want To Start Counseling

First session:

During the first session, we will discuss the first time client package. These documents are available on my website if you prefer to have them filled out prior to coming for the first appointment. You can also fill out the forms when you come to the appointment. Before we dive into your challenges, I will go over the consent for treatment. This is a form that explain the counseling process and lays the foundation for the work ahead. Clients are invited to ask questions if they need clarification or additional information. I welcome questions all throughout the counseling process because they keep the lines of communication open and foster a collaborative exchange.

As a therapist, I strongly value the therapeutic alliance as a pivotal component of the healing process. As much as I would love to be a fit for everyone, that is unrealistic and unreasonable. Therefore, I encourage clients to listen to their inner gut feeling and intuition in deciding if I am a good fit to help them. If by any chance they feel the opposite, I strongly encourage them to continue seeking out other professionals.

After the paperwork is completed, I open the space for the client to share what is on their heart and mind. The initial session is an important window into how the counseling experience will feel. It gives the client the opportunity to experience my counseling style and personality. My approach is fairly direct and honest. I point out things that stand out to me and initiate the process of exploration. By the end of that initial appointment, most clients know if this is something they want to pursue further. At that point, details about scheduling are discussed. I do not impose a certain rhythm, and each client decides when they want to schedule the following session. In the beginning of the process, it is common for clients to schedule appointments weekly or bimonthly. Over the years, I observed that in clients who schedule appointments every 3 or 4 weeks in the early stages of therapy, the rate of abandoning therapy is very high and the anticipated changes don't take place. Neuroscience shows that the brain's plasticity is fostered by certain factors such as exposing oneself to novel experiences, and repeated engagement and practice of new behaviors in different circumstances and despite the internal emotional state of the individual. The hippocampus (the learning and memory center) contains stems cells which take a month to sprout when properly stimulated and three months to become a new neuron. This new neuron once matured will build synapses with the neighboring neurons. It takes up to 15 + weeks for a new neuronal network to form although the client will feel the benefits of that new network sooner than 15 week. Therefore, the counseling process has a momentum that when lost, it leads to discouragement.

One of the benefits of counseling is that it creates a support system and a consistency that foster the rewiring of the brain. Clients can accomplish changes on their own as well but counseling can save time. A person can heal aspects of themselves in 10 to 20 years on their own, or accomplish the same result or more in several years of therapy.

What to expect after the initial session:

Most clients reach out to services when the emotional pain is overwhelming and they seek some relief. This is considered the crisis stage. A crisis usually stabilizes itself in 4 to 6 weeks. By then, life tends to get stable, the acuity of the issue that brought them into therapy diminished. Most clients tend to confuse this window of time with them getting better. In reality, the issue that brought them to therapy is not resolved but it is not front stage anymore. The deep work of undoing the patterns that fuel the pain can only take place when the client is stable. From this point on, the client will go back and forth between periods of calmness and agitation, clarity and confusion based on how the integration process unfolds. No one can predict a specific trajectory because the shedding of old patterns and the integration of emotional charge coded in those patterns move in a unique flow based on each client's life history. This is the most transformative phase in the life of the client with lasting results.

Since the counseling process continues outside the counseling office, I strongly recommend that clients take the content of the sessions and reflect/ponder on it in the time between appointments. I will frequently provide clients with tools that can only benefit them if practiced in their everyday life where the curricula of their transformation is.