Feelings are complicated, whether of love, sadness, anguish, or fear. But what’s even more complex are unresolved feelings that negatively affect your everyday life, transforming into emotional baggage that chains you to your past.
Moreover, even though communication is the best way to resolve issues, not being honest about your feelings can further aggravate your situation. After all, you can find it challenging to communicate how you feel to your loved ones for various reasons. For one, disclosing your emotional baggage with your partner, parents, or close friends can be daunting as you fear their reaction – whether they’ll accept your feelings or reject your thoughts. The best way to deal with unresolved feelings and trauma is by opting for therapy.
Why Should You Opt For Therapy?
You might find it difficult to cope with your feelings on your own, and a mental health counselor can listen to your concerns and actively find ways to help you lead a better life. You can develop strong resilience against negativity and a positive outlook on life with therapy.
Moreover, therapy is a great career path if you want to lend a helping hand to those who feel the same as you. You can become a mental health counselor and help people like you cope with their struggles and traumas.
Four Ways You Can Talk To Your Counselor About Sensitive Issues
To make the most of therapy, you need to be honest about your feelings with your counselor. Being upfront about your most sensitive issues will help your therapist determine the optimal plan for therapy. But if you have difficulty putting your feelings into words, continue reading to find out how you can approach your most sensitive issues during therapy sessions.
1. Choose the right counselor
The first step to successful therapy is finding the right counselor. Going to the first therapist they find isn’t always going to bring your desired results. Compatibility with the therapist will affect how comfortable you feel during sessions and how much progress you make after sessions. Finding the right therapist will be a process full of trial and error. Always interview the therapist and ask important questions to determine whether you are a good match.
When you meet for the first time, ask about their approach to therapy, their thoughts on specific issues, and how they handle situations. The best advice for choosing the right counselor is to go with your gut feeling. Trust your intuition to choose a person you can feel comfortable discussing the problems in your life.
Feeling unsure about a therapist you just met is completely normal. Try seeing a couple of others before settling on the one you find most compatible.
2. Let down your guard during sessions
Once you have found the right therapist, it’s time to go to therapy with an open and honest attitude. The best thing to do is relax. You’ve done your homework; now it’s time to trust your choice and the process. Think positively and assume your counselor wants what’s best for you throughout therapy sessions. Don’t react negatively or completely ignore what they’re saying if you disagree with their thoughts. After all, therapy works best with communication between the two parties.
Test the waters; start by sharing relatively innocuous details about yourself before delving into more personal matters and sensitive concerns. Moreover, as the sessions progress, you’ll find that the issues you focus on have changed from your initial concerns. For example, if you wanted to seek therapy for your trust issues with your partner, once you feel comfortable opening up during sessions, you’ll realize that your trust issues stem from childhood trauma.
Honesty is the best policy in all situations. But how receptive you are to treatment relies on a wide range of circumstances, including your prior exposure to therapy, your confidence in your therapist, and their approach to therapy. Relax and take things at your own pace.
3. Drop cues before bringing up sensitive issues
As therapy progresses, you might become more comfortable with your counselor, but you won’t feel ready to discuss your deepest concerns. Nevertheless, it must happen; you will have to confront this unpleasant subject at some point. It can be anything from a past traumatic event or something affecting your mental health in the present. Whatever it may be, you’re having trouble bringing it up in conversation businesstodaysnews.
One helpful way you can talk about this is by dropping cues about the subject. You can tell your counselor that the things you’re about to discuss are extremely sensitive for you before opening up about your sensitive concerns. This will signal your counselor to pay close attention to your state of mind and needs during this session. Professional therapists are usually attentive but letting them know when you feel vulnerable never hurts.
Discussing how you feel about having these conversations might also be beneficial if you feel comfortable doing so. As an alternative to immediately discussing the traumatic experience, it may be helpful to talk about how you feel. Feelings of anxiety, stress, etc., expressed openly, might help ease the difficulty of discussing taboo subjects.
4. Communicate your goals and track them together
Most therapists work closely with patients to gain insights into their issues and bring about positive changes in their lives more quickly. However, to be possible, they need to zero in on the patient’s individual needs and objectives and work together to achieve the desired results. This entails that you – the patient – must communicate your goals and work closely with your therapist to see the results.
Moreover, you’ll do better by keeping track of your progress, regardless of everything else, including your goals, approach to therapy, and treatment timeline. It’s as easy as checking in with your therapist after each session to report your progress or setbacks regarding symptoms, relationships, and other areas of your life that you’re working to improve. Or you can keep a journal tracking your progress and reflections on therapy.
It’s important to be honest with your counselor about what is and isn’t helping. It’s important to keep your therapist updated on your progress and to remind them of your objectives. Plus, while professional therapists are used to dealing with uncertainty and the gradual process of moving past roadblocks, knowing how you fare outside sessions can help them bring the most out of your treatment knowcarupdate.
Bottom Line
Therapy can be daunting, especially if you don’t feel ready to disclose your deepest concerns. However, if you want to see your desired results, make some real progress, and let go of your emotional baggage, approaching therapy with an open mind is your best bet. It’s completely fine to take things at your own pace but remember that honesty and being upfront about your feelings are the famousmagazinenow most important aspects of therapy. Consider the above-given tips to make the most of your therapy session and see your desired results.
