Success with Short Term Counseling

Are you seeing a counselor or therapist for a long time? Are you feeling frustrated because it is expensive and time consuming, and you were hoping for more progress? Would you say that you feel dependent on your counselor to tell you what you should do?

There are multiple therapeutic modalities, and some of them help you make the positive changes much quicker than others. Also, some of them empower you to make your own decisions so that you can be independent, and offer you the tools for successful living.

Short term counseling focuses on the causes instead of the symptoms of your problems. For example, weight, prosperity, or relationship issues, etc. are symptoms of the negative beliefs in the unconscious, which are the causes of the problems. I discovered this important information 27 years ago, as I was counseling clients as a Marriage, Family Therapist. This concept has lately become more popularly known as "The Law of Attraction." Another way to explain this basic principle is that your mind is magnetic and you attract what you believe.

For example, Betty told me that she felt like a failure in her relationships. "If only the right man would ask me to marry him!" said Betty. But she never seemed to be able to attract that right man.

I sensed that the answer to her problem was in her unconscious. I have a favorite saying, "Close your eyes and see clearly." So I said, "Betty, close your eyes and imagine that the right man is asking you to marry him. How do you feel?" Betty replied, "Terrified!"

On the conscious level Betty wanted to be loved and married. But underneath those feelings, in the unconscious level, she was afraid of it : afraid of having the relationship she desired. By asking her to say, "I am terrified because__" and finish the sentence, Betty uncovered her low self-esteem issues. She did not feel good enough or lovable.

If I had just continued to encourage Betty to speak about her frustration, there is a good chance that she would have needed long term counseling. However, with the HART (Holistic and Rapid Transformation) guided visualization process, Betty was able to get in touch with why she was feeling terrified and heal herself by realizing that she was good enough and lovable. That all occurred in one counseling session.

As far as couple therapy is concerned, I believe that to be effective and efficient one counselor needs to see both people involved. One reason is that it is esssential to have a reality check. For example, Fred, a middle aged man, came to me and said his wife's therapist told her that he was emotionally unavailable. The counselor never met Fred and made that decision based on his wife's complaints. As we all know, there is always two sides to every story.

The therapist would only work with his wife and she suggested that Fred seek another counselor. During Fred's first counseling session, I helped him feel safe and then discovered that he was definitely in touch with his many emotions.

It is also important to counsel both parties so that the health professional can see the system, or patterns between the two. For example, one scenario is whenever the husband becomes angry at his wife she yells back, and they have a noisy argument. It could also be that when the woman is angry, her partner pulls away. It is imperative for a counselor to point out the couples' destructive patterns, and show them how they can face each other, calmly discuss the problem, and resolve it with a win-win solution.

There is also a good chance that the couple is having difficulty with their communication. It is important for the counselor to teach them how to communicate constructively and/or recommend a good book or class. It is very helpful to have them practice during the couple session so that the professional can give them feedback.

It is likely that the men and women in couple counseling have some self-esteem issues. In short term counseling, these problems are addressed in individual private sessions so that they can allow themselves to be vulnerable, close their eyes, and get to the root of the problems.

In summary, you can experience success with short term counseling. It will empower you to quickly uncover the causes of your problems and guide you to the solutions. Congratulate yourself for being willing to face your issues and resolve them with a supportive health professional.