Some people may not even be interested in those insights. However you feel about psycho-education during your sessions, you should be able to have an open conversation about this with your prospect or current counsellor.
Some clients deeply dislike self-disclosures and prefer their sessions to contain only content about the client. Some people like to sense that their counsellor is a human with emotions and find it helpful.
A common definition of compersion is sympathetic joy. It is the opposite of jealousy or possessiveness. Compersion arises even when the happiness of others is not directly connected or beneficial to us. An example of compersion is being happy for a friend that has been promoted at work – it is immaterial to your own situation, and your happiness comes from the fact that your friend is happy and successful. …
We all know this: we say something, and the other person responds with “umm” or “aha!” Those responses can be helpful or irritating, especially when we feel that there is no genuine interest in the listener.
Reflections can sometimes be triggering for clients who have previously accessed therapy and did not particularly enjoy it.
If the relationship between the client and the counsellor feels incongruent (counselling word for a bad match), we can later have negative experiences around basic counselling techniques.
The pacing of counselling conversations is important for your wellbeing and needs to factor in your preferences.
This is an important preference, and a good counsellor should ask you if you like to be challenged. It’s essential to agree on how you will work with your counsellor around emotions, behaviours, and experiences.
Some counselling approaches (like CBT) come with pre-defined forms of homework, for example, tracking your mood between the sessions. Other approaches, like person-centred talking therapies, prioritise active listening in the room. Integrated approaches allow more freedom around this.
What if I do not like structured sessions? Or what if I really need a structure to my therapy sessions to feel safe and well? Does it matter?
How are you doing? Last month I wrote about getting things done and organising ourselves. Someone asked me later: how do you manage to find all the energy to get it all done? Well, I pause and restore. Only that my approach to pauses is minimal – that means I build in rest and pause into every single task ahead of me. So here are a few small tips on effective pauses.