[mikelo]

Hello,

I’ve been dealing with anxiety for long time now and 5 months ago I decided to go to a counselor.
Going to these sessions always makes me feel better and puts me in better mode, but it doesn’t change anything.
By going to these sessions and talking freely about my anxiety and the causes and the experiences I face everyday makes me feel better because I found someone ( who seems to be very friendly ) who can listen to me, but I feel that this actually helps only temporarily.

My question is:
what are the expectations I should put for these counseling sessions and does a counselor actually helps develop strategies to help or just be a good listener and tries to push me to extract the answers myself ? and Also how long does it take to notice an improvement or change in terms of dealing with anxiety.
If someone has experience with such things please reply here or you can send me a message to talk about that.

Thanks.

[kaliope]

hi mikelo
your counselor should be doing all of the above. talking to get to the root of your anxiety and helping you develop strategies to manage your anxiety when you have it. some anxiety, once you make sense of why it is there and get to the root of it, can just go away, others you just have to find a way to minimize its effect so you can cope better. welcome to psych central. you will find we have several forums where you can post about your concerns and receive feedback from other members. you will get a lot of support here. again, welcome.

[CANDC]

welcome to Psych Central(PC) mikelo. Sorry you are having a challenge or are stuck in a certain place with your counselor.

Whatever way you take to get back to a balanced place, it still is up to each of us to live our lives in a meaningful way. It is like making a bucket list of the 10 most important things to finish in life. The book CALLINGS by Gregg Levoy is all about this kind of inner exploring.

For other types of natural coping mechanism I count the breath on the inhale and exhale and get relaxation and less intrusive thoughts. I also find doing work, yoga, exercises or creative expression with mindfulness training to be a great help in coping.

Forums are here http://forums.psychcentral.com

Private message anyone by left clicking on their blue name to the left of their posts.

Thank you for sharing your story.

[mikelo]

Thanks a lot for the reply and thanks for welcoming me.
This is helpful, I will talk with my counselor in next session about what I actually expect to get from the sessions and see how it goes.
Btw the book CALLINGS by Gregg Levoy seems like a really good book, I just started reading it, thanks for mentioning it