Individual Counseling
We believe that counseling can change your life for the better. That’s why we opened Relationship Solutions in the summer of 2019. Our goal is to help strengthen relationships in an increasingly disconnected world. If you’ve never considered counseling services before or if you’re looking for a new counselor, we’d love to introduce you to the compassionate and skilled care that our clinical team offers.
Our primary model of therapy is Emotionally Focused Therapy, a highly-effective treatment approach developed by Dr. Sue Johnson, PhD. Emotionally Focused Therapy is effective at helping individuals experience greater levels of security and connection with themselves and those they love. And in the context of secure connection, we can help couples, families and individuals achieve their counseling goals.
Individual counseling is available for adults, adolescents and children at the offices of Relationship Solutions. Our skilled, highly trained counselors and family therapists are able to help you overcome the challenges you are facing and guide you into healthier ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. If you’ve never considered speaking to a counselor before, consider the many benefits it can offer you.
Counseling focuses completely on you
There are very few relationships in life that are centered totally on you. Most relationships are like a two-way street focused on the needs of both people. Individual counseling is unique in that the sole focus is on you and your care. Your counselor is present and ready to meet you where you are, to care for the things that are affecting you and to make sure that you are meeting your goals. You can relax and process the concerns and challenges you are facing without fear of talking too much or being too self-focused. And with both of you working together to make sure that your needs are met, you’re more likely to achieve the goals that are important to you. Our counselors love their work and enjoy focusing on taking care of you.
You don’t have to be struggling to benefit from counseling
When Michael Phelps won five gold medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, no one thought twice about him having a swimming coach. Because great athletes always have coaches; it’s not a sign of weakness or inferiority, it’s a necessity. Maybe that’s the way we should be looking at counseling, too. It’s not a sign of weakness or mental illness. It’s a sign of wisdom. High performing people have stronger, wiser others supporting them, encouraging them and cheering for them.
Rather than waiting until things are out of control or until you’re in crisis, maybe it’s time to consider how to improve your relationships with others, boost your emotional health or resolve past hurts. As you’re reading this you probably are aware of some things that you’d like to improve about yourself. You may even be making a mental list as you read. Maybe you’ve been trying to manage things on your own but things are not improving. A counselor can help you see your blind spots and help you develop a plan for change.
Counselors know helpful things
This may seem obvious but counselors have hundreds of hours of education and training in the counseling field. They are experts at helping people. They have studied closely how to treat trauma, relationship problems, self-destructing habits and much more. And the best counselors never stop learning and growing. Many counselors have even received counseling themselves in order to be as healthy as they can and because they want to understand the experience of their clients. All of this effort and work is done so they are able to guide you from where you are to where you want to be.
Our counselors are lifelong readers, learners, and researchers. They spend their time gathering knowledge and wisdom because you don’t always have time to do that. If you need information or wisdom, our counseling staff can be the resource you need. And if they don’t know the answer to your question, they can connect you with a resource of with someone who does.
Counseling can improve your confidence
Oftentimes a person comes to counseling because they feel that their self-esteem needs improvement. They feel less-than, unworthy or just plain not good enough. Maybe you can relate to that feeling. We’ve all felt that sense of inadequacy from time to time. In our culture, we refer to that inadequate feeling as a lack of confidence. And it could be that. But it could also be a sign of a deeper issue involving security.
Confidence, as it is most often understood in our society, is the sense that we are good enough. It’s the feeling that we measure up and know that we have value that we can offer our relationships, our workplace and our society. Counseling can certainly help with that. But sometimes people who think they have a problem with confidence actually have a problem with security. Security, as we define it in counseling, is the sense that you are physically, relationally, and emotionally safe. That if you are your truest, most authentic self that you would be accepted, valued, and loved.
Many of us try to manage our self-confidence by applying our own version of Stuart Smalley’s corny Saturday Night Live mantra: I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me. Which is not bad. It’s actually very healthy to speak positively of ourselves. But security calls for something a little deeper. To feel secure, we need to know that if we are our authentic selves that we are loved and accepted, mistakes and all, by at least one other. And in the safety of a secure, accepting relationship we can begin to see our own value and worth. When we are convinced of our worth by another then we can begin to believe it for ourselves and confidence can thrive.
Counseling is worth the investment because you are worth the investment
Investing time and resources in your own counseling is worth it because you are worth it. Instead of looking at counseling as a luxury, maybe it’s time to look at it as an investment into who you want to be tomorrow, or next year, or in ten years. We grow best in the context of relationship and partnership with others. If you are ready to commit to a plan of health and restoration then contact our office and let us partner with you so you can become the individual you always dreamed of being. Our counselors are ready and waiting to join you on the journey to becoming the best version of you that you can be.