What to expect from therapy?
A therapy is a gift to yourself. It can be challenging to meet a counsellor for the first time. Counselling is a safe and confidential forum where you can share your thoughts and feelings without judgement. Your counsellor will get to know you and will ask you about your life story, your strengths and limits, your family, your health, your relationships, your previous counselling experiences. With your counsellor's help, you will set some goals and create an image of what you would like to achieve.
Your counsellor is there for you, to help you achieve your goals. The therapeutic relationship is very important; therefore, I encourage you to work with a counsellor you are comfortable with. Feel free to ask counsellors about their qualifications. Honest and direct communication with your counsellor will ensure that you move forward.
In the first few meetings, you will talk about what is troubling you, your counsellor will discuss fees, how often you wish to meet, and how long you wish to be in counselling. Counsellors have many tools they can use in therapy and one of them is homework. You may be asked to do certain activities, writing, reading or thinking between sessions.
A therapy is a commitment to yourself and requires effort, which surpasses the one-hour session. Keep in mind that the benefits are worthwhile. Therapy can increase intrusive thoughts, emotions or images and there are techniques to manage these. Your counsellor can teach you how to do this. Once such memories are adequately processed intrusions will dissipate and should no longer be an issue.