Counselling for Depression or Anxiety: Will it Work for Me? ~Pt 2

Posted: January 29, 2018

Continuing from the last post, we’re looking at more of the factors that help to make counselling for depression or anxiety effective for you.

Could it be effective for you?… PHOTO: Robert Bejil

As I mentioned at the outset of that last post, therapy or counselling for depression or anxiety can offer unique benefits in helping the individual to peacefully accept him or herself, and in terms of accessing creative and life-giving ways to approach her or his life. In the previous post, we looked at some ways in which this occurs in effective therapy. Here, we look at some more…

Am I Really Willing to Forge a Close Connection with My Counsellor / Therapist?

In counselling for depression or anxiety, as in all forms of therapy, the therapeutic relationship is crucial. Psychotherapy experts such as Prof. John Norcross and others note that the quality of the relationship with the case studies largely determines the success of the counselling or therapy.

If you can:

openly discuss how you experience your interactions with your therapist directly with him or her;
discuss your positive or negative reactions to your therapist, and,
discuss what you imagine your therapist might be feeling or thinking,

you will actually develop a great deal of insight into what is happening inside of you. (Warning: this isn’t going to happen in the first 3 sessions!}

Being Honest with Myself — In a Way That’s Kind to Me

Therapy or counselling works when we have the courage to be as honest with ourselves as possible. However, it’s also essential to avoid beating yourself up once you’re been honest!

As many have stated, to make counselling or therapy work you need a combination of non-defensive honesty with genuinely compassionate self-acceptance. It’s easy to fall into a defensive, self-protective stance when we face an uncomfortable insight into how we’re living and handling situations in our lives. When we react this way — and we might well, if counselling or therapy are asking the right questions — it’s essential to try as hard as we can to be both honest, and full of love and compassion towards ourselves.

What’s My Basic Personal Story? Am I Willing to Let Go and Change It?

The human mind constructs a fundamental story about our lives in the world. We use story to help ourselves make sense of the events and complexity of life. The kind of story we tell ourselves will greatly impact how we feel about ourselves, and on what we expect from our lives, and our relationships.

Depth case studiess know that the story we tell ourselves is often largely unconscious. Yet it’s still extremely powerful. If we’re in the grips of a story that has us as the hero who must save everyone, or as the perpetual victim, or as the perennial misfit, it can basically run our lives. Virtually every situation in which we find ourselves can seem to confirm the story.

Are we willing to try to observe patterns in our lives that might give us clues as to the nature of the overarching story in our lives? It can be very important to take in the big picture in our lives, and then ask — is this story good for me? Does it really reflect who I am? Am I willing to try and change it — change my beliefs — if it’s a limiting or crippling story that just isn’t fair to me?

Am I Willing to Actually Change Things in My Life?

counselling for depression or anxiety

Experiment! (PHOTO: NASA)

Are we prepared to act in support of new beliefs or changing attitudes, by doing something concrete in the outer world? If therapeutic work is to make a difference, the work must extend beyond the therapist’s office, and into our lives. Am I willing to make appropriate outer changes in my life? To try new and different patterns of activity? Am I willing to do inner work, like journalling, creative work, or exploring dreams? Undertaking such concrete, conscious steps may be essential to making my therapy work real and effective in my life.

Counselling for Depression or Anxiety as A Journey to Wholeness

Jungian /a-midlife-transition occurs both within the hour of therapy or counselling, but also inside the individual client and in his or her outer life outside of the therapy session. The integration of these elements structures the journey towards wholeness, .

Brian Collinson, Registered Psychotherapist & Jungian Psychoanalyst

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