Individual Counselling
Many people come as individuals to work on individual issues. Below are listed just a few of the more common areas. Every person who comes to therapy has their own unique situation that requires it’s own careful exploration.
Anger
Anger is a complex emotion. We are often given strong messages about anger as we grow up. For some, anger is a fearful emotion to experience because of the terror experienced with other people’s anger. Other times we are confused and guilty about anger because of messages received: “Nice people don’t get angry”. Still others are shocked at the intensity of the anger they feel and the inappropriate ways they find themselves expressing their anger. Therapy can help you engage in a healthy relationship with your anger. While several of our therapists help people effectively deal with their anger,
Rod Minaker offers individual as well as group counselling to help people understand and manage their anger in a course format: TDC.
Transforming Destructive in Constructive: Understanding and Relating to Your Anger.
The individual course is offered over 4 sessions, scheduled at a convenient time, which deliver specific content as well as individualize the approach to your specific needs. The individual course is offered for $325, (a value of $360,) including the cost of the manual. It covers the same objectives as the group course, and also provides you with a certificate of completion.
Self-esteem
Today’s cultural influences, with suggestive messages about an “ideal body” or a lifestyle that “has it all” can put enormous
pressure on an individual, and lead towards a feeling of “I’m not good enough”. Other influences are pressures and expectations unfairly placed on a person by others or even oneself. It is painful to struggle with feelings of low self-worth. Having low
self-esteem shapes how a person faces every part of the day. Counselling is a process whereby you can examine the ways in which you measure your worth, and work together to help you discover
the value of “you”!
Guilt
It may oversimplify a complex feeling, but often guilt can be categorized into appropriate guilt—“I need to change something to make it right” or inappropriate guilt—“I feel so awful—but it doesn’t make any sense when I really look at the situation”. Counselling can help you
figure out the difference between the two, and help you develop an understanding of the role of guilt in your life. Once a person has developed an understanding of the role of guilt, strategies to constructively address it often arise.
Anxiety
Anxiety can imprison a person in all sorts of painful ways, restraining them from a life that they desire but seems out of grasp. It can cause all sorts of
physical symptoms.
Anxiety can become crippling as it presents itself in panic attacks,
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or particular fear of specific situations/objects, or is a vague but
real discomfort as a person lives life. Along with medical treatment, where appropriate under a physician’s supervision,
therapy can assist a person in exploring and understanding some of the
context for their anxiety, and then
developing strategies to constructively live by reducing the anxiety, or developing more effective ways of living with the anxiety. You can get an idea of
how we think about anxiety by reading our blog posts on the topic.
Depression
The
pit of depression is a dark and
lonely place. It is more than feeling sad or a “feeling blue”, but is accompanied by physical symptoms affecting appetite and sleep, changes in energy and enthusiasm, difficulty in relationships, a change in sex drive and the ability to enjoy things in life previously pleasurable. Research suggests that getting good medical care with appropriate medication combined with counselling is the most effective way to treat depression. Support and the meaningful connection of another person is something that we offer at Bergen & Associates Counselling. To continue your thinking about depression,
read about depression on our blog.
