#therapy experience

New Post has been published on https://thepsychologycompany.co.uk/a-clients-therapy-experience/

A Client’s Therapy Experience

As many of you may know May was mental health awareness month and in support of this one of our clients, Alexa Goddard, bravely and courageously participated in a podcast as part of a campaign called Choose Therapy where she talks openly and eloquently about her experience of anxiety and OCD and how therapy has helped her.

With Alexa’s permission we are sharing this podcast in support of her and because we, like Alexa, hope that the more people start to talk openly about mental health and psychological therapy the more normalised it will become. In fact we think therapy should be as normal as people seeing a personal trainer to help them improve their physical health!

We hope you enjoy the podcast:

[vc_video link=’https://youtu.be/ODXyUfGDBZw’]

While going for counselling isn't something to be embarrassed about and is more widely accepted than ever before, it is important that you know that the outcome may not be what you are expecting. In some rare cases, with the help of the counsellor, you may both realise that separating and living apart is better for you, your relationship and you family. Relationship therapy is not meant to be easy and there are certain things you are going to want to ensure you both do to get the most out of your experience and help you moving forward. Before you go to your first session, sit down and write down what the goals are that you want to achieve when you go for relationship therapy. What do you want out of your life? What do you expect of your partner? What blocks do you have to get through to reach your goals? Knowing what your goals are gives you something to focus on during therapy and ensure that you can both come to the table to ensure that your therapy sessions are effective and help you in the long run. Chances are your counsellor will direct you towards making the right choices. They will use a therapy which gets you talking, not to them but to each other to work through your problems. The choices you have to make is your attitude towards relationship therapy and your motivation in the long run, do you want to ensure your relationship works or are you ready to go down the road of separating and moving on with your life? In order to get the most out of this experience, you must both want it. There is no point even attending sessions if the focus is one sided. If you want to go to counselling and your partner doesn't, then the result is not going to be effective. You also want to check your attitude and ensure that you are both focused on making the necessary changes you need to make to ensure your relationship is a success moving forward. Be ready to accept to hear things you don't want to hear. Relationship therapy can be a painful experience and you may find yourself hurt, but you need to be prepared to hear things about yourself that you are not ready to hear. Hearing these things and then using that information to change yourself, may be just what is needed to improve your relationship. Communication is an imperative part of any relationship and if you don't communicate with each other, then you may never know where the problems lie in the relationship and what you both need to work on. You need to approach counselling with an open mind and be accepting of what you are told, you need to be ready to share your feelings with your partner and make them understand the problems you have within the relationship that they must work on, while accepting things you need to focus on. It is very important that you feel comfortable with your counsellor, you should feel you can open up and speak freely in front of them. The final thing you need to do to get the most of your experience is to learn from the past and use that to improve your future. Article Source: http://ift.tt/1UJioeC