Success with Short Term Counseling

(Here’s an article of great value to small business owners, www.GBN-Online.com)

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.

—————————————————-
©2008 by Helene Rothschild, MS, MA, MFT, Marriage,
Family Therapist, intuitive counselor, animal communicator,
and author of, “ALL YOU NEED IS HART! Create Love, Joy and
Abundance ~NOW!” She offers international short term
counseling, a relationship check-up questionnaire,
teleclasses, books, e-books, MP3 audios, and a free
newsletter, MP3 audio and e-book.
http://www.lovetopeace.com , 1-888-639-6390.