Counseling, coaching, and psychotherapy all exist to bring about positive change.
Whether that change is in yourself, your relationships, or your circumstances,
the ultimate goal is to create a satisfying, enjoyable, richer, and more meaningful life.

Make Sense of Your Life

Sometimes people find that their feelings and choices don’t make sense to them. For example, one person might not understand why he becomes angry in certain situations, another might not understand why she stays in a demoralizing job, another might wonder why he procrastinates on important projects, and another may question why she stays with a partner who finds fault with her. Sometimes people experience conflict between what they think and what they feel. For example, one person may think she wants to eat a healthy diet, but she feels like eating cake and ice cream. Another person may think he wants to develop a healthy social network but feels anxious when approaching new people.

Counseling can help you discover the beliefs and expectations you hold at an emotional level. These develop out of life experience, and have the power to influence or control your feelings and actions. By working with a psychologist, you can bring your inner beliefs and expectations out into the open where they can be tested, challenged, and understood. Counseling can also help you learn to recognize your needs and wishes, and to identify alternative means to satisfy them. It is a process that can help you to better understand yourself, your motivations, and your reactions to others.

Make Healthier Choices

As self-understanding evolves, the emotional beliefs and expectations that have affected you start to lose some of their power. Although they never go away completely, recognizing when they become activated, and how they influence your choices, helps to minimize their control. This allows you to see things more clearly, put things in perspective, and make choices that reflect self-value more easily. Counseling can help you approach life with greater confidence and to take more responsibility for bringing about your own happiness.

Improve Your Relationships

Relationships, particularly intimate relationships, set the stage for much of life’s greatest joy and contentment, as well as for much of life’s pain and confusion. Working on relationship issues often involves learning to understand not only yourself but the other person as well. As you come to appreciate the emotional needs of your partner, as well as the framework they struggle within, you come to accept and care for that person more fully and completely. One of the wonderful things about pursuing counseling with a significant other is that it acts as a catalyst for self-discovery. You come to understand yourself more quickly and more deeply when you are examining things in the context of a relationship. Another positive outcome of couples counseling is that each of you learns what your responsibilities are within a relationship. You learn how to care for each other better, and ultimately can find greater safety and love with your partner.

Find Joy in Your Work

Sometimes people find themselves in a job or a work environment that brings little joy, satisfaction, or sense of accomplishment. Counseling and coaching can help you discover career paths that fit with who you are. Through testing, exercises, and discussion, you can develop a stronger sense of your talents, skills, and interests. Once this has been accomplished, options for your future can be generated. These might include pursuing education, moving to a different field of work, or starting your own business. Working with a counselor or coach can help you establish your goals, outline the steps you need to take, and provide you with encouragement along the way. You can find joy, not only in the end result but in the process of getting there.