What can you expect from a Mental Health counseling session?

What can you expect from a mental health counseling Session?

Like physical health, mental health is a very important aspect of our overall wellbeing . Mental health is the psychological, emotional and social well being. It health influences how we think , how we interpret the information, how we feel, and how we act. Hence, to live a healthy lifestyle it is equally important for mental health to be sound along with our physical health. Due to various reasons, individuals suffer from physical and mental problems like depression, anxiety, stress, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, etc. In the context of Nepal, people usually do not try to solve any type of mental issues but hide it which isn’t a very wise choice. However, these days with the changes in education system and access to resources, people are understanding the importance of mental health.

As a result, people suffering from various mental problems are reaching out for help. Mental health counseling is the help provided by professionals to the people who are facing difficulties to cope with their occupational, social and academic life and/or dealing with different mental health issues.

Professionals like psychologists, counselors, social workers and some trained nurses provide mental health counseling services. These services are provided to the individuals who are suffering from any mental problem and sometimes, also to the family members of the individual. Mental health counseling is all about a clinical diagnosis and treatment of the diagnosis. In other words, the counselor explores the problem the individual is facing with the help of different psychological approaches. Then after diagnosing the problem, he/ she helps the individual find healthy ways to cope with his social, occupational and academic life by various treatment and intervention strategies. Mental health counseling can be taken by anyone with mental health problem or even by the one who wants to explore themselves more. Mental health counseling can be of various forms such as individual counseling, family counseling, couple counseling and group counseling.

Individual counseling or one to one counseling is given to a person to focus on personal matters such as career, relationships, anxiety, stress, depression , substance abuse and many more. The counselor and the individual work together to explore the root of the issues ,understand the situation, set desired goals like behavior modification or perceptions and use strategies to accomplish them. On the other hand, family counseling is given to the members of the family. In this counseling, the counselor works with the family members to maintain and build a healthy and happy family relationship. Also, family counseling helps to improve communication and relationships in the family. In addition, it helps to develop healthy boundaries and improve the family’s problem solving abilities.

Likewise, couple’s counseling is another form of counseling which is provided for romantic couples or intimate partners. It helps you and your partner improve and rebuild your relationship. Couple’s counseling deals with issues like repeated conflicts, feelings of disconnection, issues related to sex or external problems like an affair. Here, the counselor first gets to know you and identifies your emotions, then explores the past for causes and focuses on solution. At last, the counselor teaches different skills to cope up or tackle similar problem in the future.

Lastly, group counseling is another form of counseling in which a group of people and the counselor together try to solve a problem or just share each other’s opinions about various topics. Group counseling can be done in an industrial setting to improve the efficiency of the workers or to boost up the confidence of the employees or in school settings for both the teachers and the students. This helps the teacher to know what’s going on with their students and the students can learn and share a lot through counseling. It can be done in other settings like hospital, monasteries, organizations as well .

In conclusion, mental health is very important to live a happy and healthy life. Mental health counseling can be taken by anyone regardless of their age ,gender, caste, religion, relationship status (married, unmarried, single or in relationship) . It might be little too overwhelming at the beginning to go to counseling but trust the process and focus on yourself rather than the society. Help yourself grow and live a life you deserve with healthy ways to cope with your mental health issues.