Professional counseling is a type of therapeutic treatment that involves talking through different life events or situations with which individuals may be struggling to work through on their own as a means to promote personal growth, wellness, and career development, as well as much more. Seeking services from a professional counselor involves working with the counselor to develop different strategies to address concerns regarding psychological or mental health, as well as personal development. There are many life situations that can come up for which the majority of the population are not sufficiently equipped to cope in a healthy manner, and counseling is just one means to gaining those skills to help reduce stress, learn to make better-informed decisions, and to grow as an individual. Professional counseling can be offered for individuals, families, couples, or groups, depending on the situation that would benefit from the sessions.

There are many different types of counseling available to address any conditions or concerns that may arise throughout a lifetime. The four most common types of counseling include cognitive behavioral counseling (also known as “talk” counseling), dialectal behavioral counseling, family counseling, and group counseling. Group counseling is very useful for bringing together individuals who have experienced a similar life event or trauma that allows them to safely share their experiences to learn from one another and together heal as a group. Almost any type of counseling can be done in both an individual and group form, with the group form more commonly known as “support groups”. Other types of counseling include:

– Psychodynamic or psychanalytic counseling: talk counseling to uncover subconscious ideals and habits
– Humanistic counseling: focusing on how events have influenced the experiences and feelings of the individual
– Behavioral counseling: addressing specific behaviors that may be negatively affecting the life of the individual (e.g. anxiety attacks)
– Grief counseling: to work through the process of grief
– Cognitive counseling: allowing individuals to align their thinking with reality
– School and child counselors: working with children and adolescents to learn how to cope with emotional and mental changes in a healthy manner

There are many more types of counseling, and many counselors are able to offer several types depending on what may be best suited to fit the needs of each individual patient.

Though the two terms are often conflated or used interchangeably, counseling and therapy have a few differences. Generally speaking, counseling is more often used as a shorter-term method to address one specific issue or concern where patients will learn how to use the skills they learn in counseling to address concerns that may arise down the line. Therapy is usually considered more of a long-term treatment that is able to address a variety of concerns that may be more complex or ongoing and require specialized treatment.

Most counselors will use four stages with each patient to offer the best chance of success. The first stage will typically be getting to know the patient, giving the patient and counselor an opportunity to see if they are the right fit for the specific issue that the patient would like addressed and starting to build a relationship or rapport of trust between them. Rushing through this first stage can end up making the entire process less effective as it is important that the counselor understand the needs and views of the patient in order to help them address the issues and that the patient feels comfortable enough with the counselor to be open and honest throughout the sessions. The second stage will usually consist of clarifying the goals of the treatment and creating a treatment goal to be best prepared to start the actual counseling, which occurs in the third stage. The counseling session itself finally occurs at the third stage now that both parties are aware of expectations and have established trust. The fourth and last stage is where the patient and counselor can check in and make sure that the patient has been able to implement some of their newfound skills or if they would benefit from further counseling.

Best Fit Counseling and Psychiatry offers professional counseling services. Call us for more info. We are licensed in Ann Arbor MI, Pittsfield Charter TWP MI, Ypsilanti MI, Saline MI, Dexter MI, Scio TWP MI, and surrounding areas.