Often, in our lives, we experience some happy moments,
confusing moments, nostalgic moments, regret, disappointment, frustration,
success etc.
Even though one may have lots or few friends and a
loving and supporting family, sometimes some people still feel very
uncomfortable in sharing their deep-rooted problems with their loved ones and decide
to take help from counselors.
About Personal Counseling
Personal counseling is
a one-to-one session between a client and a trained therapist, in a safe,
caring, and confidential environment. The client expresses whatever personal
problem he or she is facing be it anxiety, lack of self-love, heartbreak,
discrimination etc to the therapist.
They help their clients
in facing their problems and helps them in dealing with their emotions by
suggesting simple things such as diary writing, taking a walk, listening to
instrumental music, role -playing etc.
Introduction
to Online Counseling
During tough times like
pandemic, the mental health of the people is severely affected.
Recently, a new method called online counseling
has been introduced to help people address their mental or personal problems
just by sitting at home.
Online counseling is an
online method wherein, professional counseling services are provided
through the use of emails, real-time chat, and video conferencing. This model
is becoming popular among young people who are in need of personal help.
Expectations
from Online Counseling:
Many people who go for their
first online session have certain expectations which are according to me are as
follows:
1.
Patience
The counsellor should
be very good at being patient. Every client as a human being would expect their
therapist to patiently listen to them.
Some people are affected so much by their
trauma that they tend to say same things repeatedly. They feel insecure about
it too and tend to restrict themselves from sharing everything.
So, counsellors need to
exhibit a lot of patience while dealing with such situations especially in
online counseling.
They should not get
irritated if their client is not able to see or follow their perspective. This
is because a person who is already stressed or feeling sad may have thousands
of negative thoughts going in their mind and any signs of anger and irritation
would make them even more insecure, worthless and helpless.
Sometimes, all we want
is a crying shoulder and a listening ear rather than a solution!
2.
Comfort
The therapist,
especially when they are providing their counseling services in an online
platform, needs to create a comfortable environment for their clients.
The clients too feel
very uncomfortable or anxious while sharing their life story to a third person.
They might feel that a third person too would laugh at them or be disgusted by
them.
So, If I was the
client, I would expect my therapist to make me feel comfortable and assure me
that he/ she won’t judge me and the information shared would be confidential.
3.
Gentle Tone
Clients generally
expect their therapist to be gentle towards their pain and problems when they
first approach online counseling sessions.
In online sessions, the
therapist should also take care that their tone is not misinterpreted by the
client. It is just like misinterpreting any message sent on the phone.
If the client misinterprets the tone, he or
she might be uncomfortable in sharing things with the therapist. So, if such
things happen, the therapist should clear the misunderstanding as soon as
possible.
4.
Understanding
Sometimes people feel
uncomfortable in sharing their feelings or pain with their family and close
friends because they feel that their friends and family are not on the same page
and cannot understand them intellectually and emotionally in certain aspects.
The person feels that he or she doesn’t “belong”
anywhere. So, it may feel like the person gets along with everyone but inside
no one would have the idea that the person feels suffocated and depressed from
inside.
So, the people who opt
for online sessions expect that their therapist understand them intellectually
and emotionally with an open mind, acknowledging their pains and letting them
know that they are not “abnormal” and they do “belong in the world”.
5.
Will to live
Often, the people who
are suffering from traumas think that they have no reason to exist or their
existence doesn’t matter.
While taking online
sessions for the first time, the clients expect their therapist to act as their
crying shoulder who allow them to let out all their emotions, stay by their
side each time in their need and assure them that their existence does matter.
The therapist is too
expected to go out of their way and act like their client’s night in the
shining armor where they understand and find problem in depth and help the
client to build a new and positive perspective where the client feels free and
loves themselves even more and finds many reasons to live again.
