What to Expect from Anxiety Counselors

Many times people hear me push counseling, but why is it that I push counseling so heavily? The simple answer is that it is very effective, especially if it is being used by someone who has a low resistance to it. However, counseling can be a very scary prospective for anyone, and particularly so for those of us who are social phobics. Thoughts run through our minds that we must be "severely screwed up" or "crazy" because those are the only kinds of people that need to see a counselor. All forms of major media, particularly movies, seem to confirm that this is indeed the case.

However, real counseling is much different from our beliefs and the media. While one may be very scared upon entering the counselor's office, one will be immediately surprised by how warm and inviting the counselor is. Counselors have a high degree of open-mindedness, and are very welcoming and accepting. The first thing that any decent counselor will do is congratulate the client on having the bravery to walk through the door.

One warning that I will give to all potential counseling candidates is that counselors can also have fairly eccentric personalities, which may lead the client to believe that the counselor is pretty stranger. However, clients must remember to reserve judgment until after being served by the counselor for several sessions, as counselors are typically a very wise and loving bunch.

I cannot speak for all counseling personalities. Counselors, like regular human beings, have a wide variety of differing personalities; some are very aggressive, some are confrontational, while others are very passive, even seemingly just as anxious as the client. The key is for the client to find a counselor with whom he or she can work effectively. Sometimes, a mismatch is made and things do not work out all that well, however, the client should simply ask to be transferred to a different counselor, and most counselors are happy to make the transfer because they value people, not money.

An actual session with a counselor mainly consists of the counselor asking questions and engaging in conversation with the client about the issue to be addressed. The counselor uses a very warm and supportive style that helps the client to open up and discuss his or her innermost feelings, whatever they may be. Counselors, as noted before, have varying styles. However, in general, they help the client to acknowledge progress towards agreed-upon goals, and they help clients to move past roadblocks. Every person on earth has "points of resistance"; things that he or she must do or talk about which or she does not want to do or talk about. This is the hardest part of counseling, and it is where clients are won or lost. If the counselor can help the client move past these hurdles, the client experiences great joy and satisfaction, and also finds the quality of his or her life improving. If the client is not able to move past the hurdles, then most likely he or she will leave counseling and revert back to his or her dysfunctional life routine.

The bottom line is that if one sticks with counseling, even if it is for just two or three months, great gains can be made in life, especially for those who have a low resistance to counseling. Everyone should give it a try because it is a great alternative to superficial methods of treating anxiety such as using medication. Counseling gains that are made are at the very least long lasting, if not permanent. This is why counseling is more effective than medication. And of course, counseling used in combination with diet, exercise, supportive friends, and personal risk-taking is most effective.