Online Counselling

Propaganda © mika fowler (Photo credit: A Florida Studio)

Online counselling offers people anonymity, affordable counselling services along with the ease of receiving the services at the geographical location they are placed in. Some people find it difficult to meet a counsellor face to face either individually or in a group. In a small town it can be embarrassing to be seen parking outside a counselor's office or walking into one. So online counselling can be a good choice for them.

There are a few websites which offer professional counselling services online. For those people who are concerned about the cost of the counselling, they find that online counselling is affordable. Through online counselling you can be connecting with a qualified counselling psychologist who will assess you and help you to work through your various problems. The setting is one wherein you can relax completely and so online counselling can at times be more successful than face to face counselling.

At the start of the online counseling, a
complete assessment of the counselee is done. There are different options for this. For example you may be asked to complete a questionnaire and then take part in a chat session for the intake to be completed. Today, many online counselling programs work via web cams. This allows a face to face interaction to take place and for a bond to be established between the counsellor and counselee.

Cognitive behavior therapy is one of the most effective forms of counselling offered online. It involves making positive changes in your own behaviors through modifying your beliefs and thinking patterns. With Online counselling in cognitive behavior therapy, you not only identify the triggers to your behavior but also learn how to modify your reactions to them thus making the choices which allow you to make an optimum adjustment to life circumstances. You can then incorporate the new behaviors in place of the old behaviors. The more you do this consciously, the faster the new patterns of behavior will become part of your repertoire of behaviors.

An important area where online counselling can be useful is stress therapy. We all suffer from some type of stress but sometimes stress can be overwhelming. No one can avoid stress but one can learn how to manage it. Too much stress can lead to a variety of concerns including fatigue, irritability, insomnia, depression and various psychosomatic illnesses. Stress can hurt you both physically and emotionally so it is very important to seek counselling once you find that you are unable to deal with it on your own.

Stressors are unique to an individual. What causes stress to one person need not cause stress in another. Being able to identify what your unique underlying stressors are is a step in the right direction. Then you would then need to take the assistance of a counsellor to learn new techniques to effectively handle your stress. Taking the assistance of an online counsellor you can learn how to effectively manage stress from the privacy of your own home or office.

Both cognitive behavior and stress therapy are often completed online. The results are excellent too which is very encouraging. Online counselling is growing at an unbelievable rate. Nowadays more and more people are using it to get the help of qualified professional counselling psychologists to deal with different personal and emotional issues.

...............................................................................
If you have found this blog entry entertaining or informative why not subscribe to 
my Feedburner notifications? 
............................................................................... 

Related articles

• Addiction Treatment (Drugs and Alcohol) (allaboutcounseling.com)
• Freedom through Online Telephone Counseling at Sheppard's Counseling Center (endtimeebooklibrary.com)
• Depressed Scots Told to Talk to their Computer (machiavelliid.com)
• Counseling (allaboutcounseling.com)
• Why Online Counseling? (unwrappingminds.wordpress.com)

Counselling In Mental Health

Image via Wikipedia

Ultimately, counselling is (or should be) about learning and practicing how to HELP YOURSELF. A counsellor's job or task is to help others to help themselves! A misconception among general society about counselling relates to advice giving. A counsellor should only give advice in certain or particular situations or under certain circumstances such as if somebody is pointing a dealy weapon to their own head (the counsellor could rightfully use "shoulds" then in such circumstances). Generally, for a counsellor to give advice is going against the principles of what counselling is about or intended to be (if used correctly) A core idea of counselling as a general rule of thumb is for the client (or person receiving counselling) to grow in him or herself and become self-sufficient as far as handling/managing current and future problems, NOT to become dependent on a counsellor or

ANYBODY else to make decisions for them (such as advice giving) which will only hinder or stalemate personal growth and resolution of problems. The term "therapist" may loosely be used as a broad term covering counsellors and more recognised psychotherapists. Speaking in loose terms, a physiotherapist, a diversional therapist, a pastoral counsellor, an art therapist, a hypnotherapist, a counsellor, a psychologist, a behaviour therapist and many others could all be loosely termed or grouped as therapists. A constable and a sergeant are both police officers but one more highly recognised and a similar comparison could be made between a counsellor and a psychotherapist. An interesting point to note also is that studies have revealed/concluded that paraprofessionals (those with somewhat minimal training such as those who have only had a few hours of training in communication skills such as active listening, using reflective skills, empathy and the like, and others such as college students and those with no formal qualifications in "therapy") can obtain very positive results in working with those presenting for treatment of general life problems. In other words, many people can be aided in a "therapeutic" relationship or atmosphere with non-professionals (non-therapists) as much as certain professional people who are therapists. It's not always the case such as in adults who present with more disturbing issues, but the point is that helpers may not absolutely need to be an "expert therapist" in order for others (generally speaking and in general situations) to reap benefits of personal interaction in dealing with general life issues. Certain types of theories and those used in many forms of counselling state and believe that humans have the capacity for self-healing with general problems or issues in life. But it is ideally suitable to associate with others when we need to whether we are facing depression, anxiety problems, relationship problems, addictions and so-forth and a part of the healing package or the "ingredients" that are required for many of us to overcome various problems is to communicate ( in one way or another) with paraprofessionals, non-professionals AND sometimes professional people in whom may come in the form of a warm, empathic and accepting counsellor.

How might a counsellor help? What benefits are there in seeing a counsellor? How DO they help? What role can they play? Many questions may be asked and these seem to be some common ones. A counsellor may be able to help in various ways and some of this will be the actual approach that they use ("approaches" here meaning an actual school of thought as in different types of psychotherapies). Counsellors are generally trained at least in certain aspects of psychotherapy (such as Person-centred therapy developed by Carl Rogers) and will generally have certain skills not only in areas such as communication skills, conflict resolution, portraying a congruent attitude and demonstrating unconditional positive regard and so-forth, but they generally are able to utilise skills of particular techniques used in various forms of psychotherapy. Counsellors may not be as skilled or have specific expertise skills as somebody such as a psychologist who is trained in helping those with mental health problems, but they still do have a fairly large repertoire of "things up their sleeve" that they can use for helping to work with others ( remembering that counselling is or should be about helping others to help themselves). Most counsellors are renowned or have a reputation of being very warm-hearted people. It may be pleasantly surprising to discover some of the benefits in talking to a non-judgemental, empathic, listening, open-minded, genuine or "real" person as a climate of such an environment in such cases can contribute to personal growth and/or other positive aspects that may be so fruitful in fighting or facing the battle of mental health issues.

A counsellor can help by using certain skills, by actually wanting to listen to you and in other ways such as helping you to become more aware of parts of yourself, using your own inbuilt skills and abilities, practicing certain skills and techniques, right though to simply offering you a non-judgemental attitude and a caring relationship, helping you to find suitable other people who have specialist skills in helping in all sorts of different areas, helping you to vent feelings and thoughts which in itself can be therapeutic, dealing with unresolved issues of the past and becoming more fully-equipped to maximise the value of the present and putting things into place for future problems or challenges, assisting you to challenge negative self-defeating beliefs, reconstruct healthy, rational or adaptive ways of thinking and much, much more. Counsellors may not be psychiatrists or have quite the in-depth knowledge of mental health issues and disorders, but they can offer aspects of healing in oneslf to a lot of people with various mental health problems.

Related articles

• Why do I want to be a counsellor? (rowanjanuary.wordpress.com)
• Learn to Control Your Emotions Through Psychotherapy (yourmindyourbody.or Counselling and   Psychotherapy FAQ (contact-counselling.com)
• Humanistic counselling: or "you're studying what?" (rowanjanuary.wordpress.com)
• The Difference between Coaching and Counselling (sandyseeber.wordpress.com)
• Don't know enough? Not good enough? Think again. (psychologytoday.com)
• What they're really thinking (independent.co.uk)