While I have learned several lessons through my work as Mental Health Counselor these are the lessons I have learned:
Mental health is just as important to take care of as our physical health. It is overlooked far too often and seen as insignificant. This is the complete opposite of the truth. We have to take care of ourselves, and our mind is an important part of that. As a Mental health counselor I have learnt a lot from clients about life.
We are all Flawed: People are flawed and we make futile attempts to hide it. No matter how much effort we put into looking perfect, and hiding our flaws, sometimes they poke through. Maybe if we didn't try so hard to hide them we'd all be better off.
Showing emotions is a sign of strength not weakness. Emotions are seen as something to be suppressed and pushed deep down. Nobody wants to see that, it is what we tell ourselves as we bury our fears, our sadness and our loneliness.
Change is hard: Any type of change has massive effects on us .Whether it is a big move, a new partner, a new career, starting a family , there are aspects of change that are hard to deal with. The sooner we adapt and find people to help us do it ,the sooner our changes become our new normal.
Therapists Have Therapists! All of these lessons go to show that we all need a therapist sometimes, even the therapists themselves! We are advocates of mental health and human, therefore, at Esteem counseling our Therapists know that sometimes they need support too. And that is OK!
Relationships wound. And they can also heal. Most of our wounds, patterns, and behaviors are usually put down early in relationship and it’s through relationship that these wounds get mirrored back to us and, moreover, it’s also through a certain kind of caring, attuned, and responsible relationship that the wounds may finally have a chance to heal. The magic and the mystery of counseling is that whatever your wounds and patterns are in the outside world, they will ultimately show up in the therapy room and that’s actually great! It gives us a chance to safely and compassionately heal and work with these patterns in a way that you may have never experienced before. THAT’S where the healing power of counseling lies; it’s not in the increased self-awareness (though that’s great!), it’s in the actual experience of a healing relationship with your therapist.
No matter where you’re starting from, transformation is possible. A thing I’ve learned in my time as a therapist is that most of us, when given the right conditions, will thrive and flourish. What are these conditions? Most likely they include positive regard, acceptance, support, attunement, safety, and constancy of relationship. And it may also look like removing yourself from dysfunctional or abusive people, or moving across the country to get away from your family of origin, or coming out, or rejecting the path you thought you were “supposed” to take.So no matter where you are starting out from, no matter what your childhood was like, no matter how many disappointing relationships, bad jobs, or unfulfilling life choices you’ve experienced, it’s still possible for you to experience something different, for transformation to happen within your life.
The healing power of simply sharing our story in front of a supportive, safe other cannot be underestimated. Most of us, at some level, carry around shame about parts of who we are or about where we come from or what we’ve done in our lives. But when we share our stories with others including the deepest, most real, most unedited, raw, vulnerable parts of who we are with another human who can see you, accept you, and keep on loving you, the healing power of this — the sharing of our story, of ourselves — is profound. I think that’s part of what I love most about being a Counselor: It’s the opportunity to be that safe, witnessing person for my clients who may have never felt like they could safely share all parts of themselves with another person before and still be accepted. It’s a sincere honor and a privilege to witness my client’s stories and to see the relief that can come for them in simply speaking their truth.
Finally i will share this powerful qoute i love and reflect to always when working with clients
"If you acknowledge your biases, both you and your clients have the opportunity for growth. When we do not acknowledge our biases, we rob our clients and ourselves of the potential for change." Katherine (Goodell et al., 2011, p. 27)
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