Counsellors

We all experience personal challenges or issues in our lives. We can deal with these times by talking to friends or family, or trying to deal with things ourselves. There are times, however, when issues are too much for us to manage on our own or cannot be resolved by support from our friends or family.

At such times, seeking support and strategies from a professional such as a counsellor can be helpful.

What is counselling? A counsellor is a trained, objective professional with whom you can build a healing and trusting relationship. They are trained to offer different types of assistance; most frequently talk-based styles of therapy.

Counselling is a process of talking about and working through your personal problems with a counsellor. The counsellor helps you to address your problems in a positive way by helping you to clarify the issues, explore options, develop strategies and increase self-awareness. For some people, just the process of telling their story to a counsellor, and being listened to, is helpful.

A trained counsellor is someone trained to offer a talk-based therapy.

There are many types of talk-based therapy

A counsellor may work in partnership with a medical doctor or other health professionals at times to give comprehensive and integrated care.

Counselling provides confidential support

This means that everything you discuss with the counsellor is private, between you and the counsellor. The exception is when a counsellor has a duty of care to report something that threatens your wellbeing or the wellbeing of others. This legal requirement will be explained to you in your first counselling session.

There are many different types of counselling and approaches that counsellors use will vary. Anyone who is struggling with a personal concern can seek counselling.

No issue is too big or too small to ask for support

Common issues that people seek counselling for include:

• Psychotherapy also uses talk-based therapy to treat clients. There can be a lot of overlap between counselling
• depending on the needs of the person. is a medical doctor who has extra training specialising in mental health

A psychiatrist may offer talk-based therapy and can prescribe mood-altering medications to help manage the symptoms of mental illnesses such as severe depression or anxiety. A counsellor is not a medical doctor and cannot prescribe medication of any kind. Do not assume that all counsellors are professionally qualified.

There is no law in United States that requires a person who provides a counselling service to have either qualifications or experience. This means that people without training or skills can call themselves counsellors or psychotherapists. A trained counsellor has usually spent 3 or more years studying counselling at university, often at postgraduate level, or has an equivalent level of training in another accredited higher education institution.

There are 2 peak bodies that provide national standards for psychotherapists or counsellors in United States – the It is important that you find a counsellor with the appropriate training and experience who suits you and your needs, and whom you feel comfortable with.

When choosing a counsellor, it is a good idea to find out the following: an estimate of their fees.

Some counsellors (for example, those who work in universities or community health centres) may be free, or may charge very low fees.

Others may charge anywhere from $40 to $150 (or more) per hour. Keep in mind that the price may have no bearing on the quality of service. Not all counsellors have the same approach and you may need to try more than one counsellor to find one that best suits your needs.

Is counselling covered by Medicare? Some counsellors are covered under a Medicare rebate and you may get your session covered under Medicare or pay a small gap fee.

To be entitled to a Medicare rebate you must get a from your doctor

This means your doctor will assess, through a questionnaire and knowledge of you, whether you would benefit from mental health support.

A mental health care plans provides you with up to 20 sessions of counselling per year with a Medicare rebate.

Medicare does not provide rebates for all counsellors

You need to ask the individual counsellor

You may be eligible for a partial rebate on your private health insurance, depending on your policy. Your first session will help you to decide whether this counsellor is the right one for you. Questions to ask yourself include:

• Do I feel comfortable? Am I able to talk freely about deeply personal thoughts
• emotions? Is the counsellor paying attention to me? Do I feel they understand
• don’t go back

You are under no obligation to continue seeing a counsellor if you aren’t comfortable with them. It is reasonable to ask the counsellor at the end of the first session for an estimate of how many sessions they think you will need.

However, remember that this is only an estimate

Some problems can be successfully resolved in a few sessions. In other cases, talking about the particular problem with the counsellor may bring up deeper, unresolved issues that need further exploration. Dealing with personal problems Common reasons

• people seek counselling grief loss communication relationships issues work
• career issues stress anxiety depression life transitions such as the birth of a new baby
• separation the Psychotherapy Counselling Federation of United States (PACFA) (616) 555-0200