This article was submitted by Juliann R. Villanueva, LMFT, of Mental Health Resources, Inc. of New Mexico
Let’s be honest with each other. More often then not, mental health counseling is viewed negatively by society which could prevent someone from making that initial call to seek therapeutic services. It is not uncommon for someone to believe, “There is something wrong with me if I’m seeing a counselor” or worse, “I must be crazy!”. A little bit more honesty, counseling does not mean laying on a couch facing away from your therapist as he/she lazily doodles on a notepad asking you to talk about your mother. Although, we may ask you to discuss family relationships from time to time, we are not here to place blame on your mom. I am sure she did the best she could with what she had available to her at the time she was raising you. These harmful stigmas could prevent you from recognizing the benefits of mental health counseling. People tend to seek counseling during a challenging period in their life. They could be seeking immediate relief from painful life changes such as the death of a loved one, a relationship loss, employment stressors or addictive behaviors.
Counseling also provides a safe environment to enhance self assertiveness skills as well as improve self worth and self confidence. These important components of a person’s well being could be affected by the unraveling of those life changes, which could in turn affect relationships and interpersonal skills. Counseling then assists in the development of improved communication skills and healthy boundary setting and ultimately leads to more satisfying relationships with family, spouse and coworkers.
A counselor assists in identifying symptoms caused by a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, bipolar, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder to name a few. Together, we establish goals to alleviate those symptoms and identifying coping skills to better manage the mental illness so as to empower you and provide you with that control over those initial life changes. Mental Health Resources offers a gamut of services to assist you in your quest for self awareness other than individual outpatient counseling, psychiatric services or drug addiction counseling. Don’t be fooled by the “self” in self awareness, as it may not simply imply individual needs, but also on how you interact and communicate with those near and dear to you, which could be obtained through marital/couples counseling and family counseling. One last bit of honesty, there is no shame in needing help or asking for it.
