Clinical Counselors, PA
Clinical Counselors, PA

 

Services

Clinical Counselors, PA puts forth every effort to treat our clients as professionally as possible.

WHY SEE A COUNSELOR?

Sometimes people who are trying as hard as they can to get through a rough time, such as family troubles or problems in school, find that they just can't cope by themselves. They may be feeling sad, angry, or overwhelmed by what's been happening - and need help sorting out their feelings, finding solutions to their problems, or just feeling better. That's when therapy can help.

WHAT HAPPENS DURING COUNSELING?

If you see a counselor, he or she will talk with you about your feelings, thoughts, relationships, and important values. At the beginning, therapy sessions are focused on discussing what you'd like to work on and setting goals. Some of the goals people in therapy may set include things like:

  • improving self-esteem and gaining confidence

  • feeling less depressed or less anxious

  • doing better with friends or schoolwork

  • learning to relate without arguing and managing anger

  • making healthier choices (for example, about relationships or eating) and ending self-defeating behaviors

During the first visit, your counselor will probably ask you to talk a bit about yourself. This helps the therapist understand you better. The therapist will ask about the problems, concerns, and symptoms that you're having.

After one or two sessions, the counselor will probably explain his or her understanding of your situation, how therapy could help, and what the process will involve. Together, you and your counselor will decide on the goals for therapy and how frequently to meet. This is usually once a week, but may include every other week, or once a month.

Once the counselor has a full understanding of your situation, he or she might teach you new skills or help you to think about a situation in a new way. For example, counselors can help people develop better relationship skills or coping skills, including ways to build confidence, express feelings, or manage anger.

Sticking to the schedule you agree on with your counselor and going to your appointments will ensure you have enough time with your therapist to work out your concerns. If your therapist suggests a schedule that you don't think you'll be able to keep, be up front about it so you can work out an alternative.

Counseling sessions are tailored in order to meet the unique needs of each client

 

adjustment

There are times when people experience emotional or behavioral symptoms that occur in response to a specific stressor (as divorce or unemployment). Counseling can help you through these stressful experiences without having to endure significant social, academic or occupational distress.

depression

The most common sign of depression is a sad mood. Other common symptoms include feelings of worthlessness, low self-esteem, hopelessness about the future, suicidal thoughts, fatigue, loss of energy, sleep difficulties, and weight changes.

Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are illnesses that cause people to feel frightened, distressed and uneasy for no apparent reason. They may cause or exacerbate uncontrollable obsessive thoughts, painful intrusive memories, recurring nightmares, excessive and chronic worry and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Some physical symptoms may include: nausea, sweating, muscle tension, pounding heart, shortness of breath and other uncomfortable physical symptoms.

Anger

Anger is a completely normal, usually healthy, human emotion. But when it gets out of control and turns destructive, it can lead to problems...problems at work, in your personal relationships, and in the overall quality of your life. Learn effective tools to reduce the emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. You can't get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions.

Assertiveness Training

Do you often find that others coerce you into thinking their way? Is it difficult for you to express your positive or negative feelings openly and honestly? Do you sometimes lose control and become angry at others who don't warrant it? Learn how to express your thoughts and feelings in a way that clearly states your needs and keeps the lines of communication open with the other.

Chronic Pain

When you are in pain, it is natural to feel angry, sad, hopeless, and/or depressed. Pain can alter your personality, disrupt your sleep, and interfere with your work and relationships. Counseling provides a safe, non-drug method to treat your pain directly by reducing high levels of physiological stress that often aggravate pain.

Grief and Personal Loss

Some symptoms of grief and personal loss that require counseling can often be associated with the following symptoms: Grieving for 4 months or more and you aren't feeling any better, depression, grief is so intense that you feel you can't go on with your normal activities, your grief is affecting your ability to concentrate, sleep, eat, or socialize as you normally do, and/or you feel you can't go on living after the loss or you think about suicide, dying, or hurting yourself.

Emotion Dysregulation 

There are times when we have difficulty managing very intense negative emotions, such as fear, sadness, anger, grief causing emotional outbursts.  An upsetting situation can often trigger an emotional outburst, and can be hard to recover from.