Does counselling work?

[vicky23]

hi all,
so I have been looking in to counselling and went to an initial consultation a couple of weeks back I thought it might help and made another appointment so first 'official' one tomorrow morning. But now I'm sitting up at 12 midnight fretting over going tomorrow and feeling despair because I know that I can't tell her everything that's bothering me so this seems pointless going to sessions but 'holding back'.
I don't know what to do :unsure: I don't want to go because I know it'll be difficult anxiety wise the journey there then sitting in the waiting room and now I'm worried about how tired I'll be but at the same time there might be some hope and I hate the thought of telling her I don't want to see her again even though it's not like we have really started work anyway.
Any advice/thoughts would be appreciated
x

[vicky23]

hi, so I went to my appointment this morning and while I was relatively calm in the session now I'm feeling more anxiety and worn out afterwards is this normal?

[PanchoGoz]

When you address your anxiety, you will feel it more because you are concentrating on it. You have to stick with the therapy for the benefits. Why are you holding things back? If its anything embarrassing or hard to explain you should still try to tell them or they might not be addressing the cause of your worries and it would be pointless! You could write stuff down for her if its hard to say maybe.
Take care and stick with it x

[vicky23]

hi Pancho thank you for your reply,
I think the reason for holding back is my fear of confidentiality, I signed a contract that said confidentiality may be broken in certain cases if the gravity of the situation calls for it. I don't really know if my issues would warrant a break in confidentiality so that's causing me some fear.
I know that a lot of my issues are connected so to get full benefit I need to disclose but I just fear that she might say 'sorry but I have to tell someone higher up' or something. My family know and they don't think I should worry about it, I guess I might not be seeing things clearly when I'm feeling so anxious

[PanchoGoz]

I would have thought it would only be if you witnessed or did an act of criminality would they break the confidentiality as a guess. There should be some terms and conditions you can read somewhere...perhaps ask them about the conditions or ask for the terms and conditions if they are written down. If your family think it should be ok then they might know best as well. Maybe one of them could explain the problem to her for you. You should be the one who makes the choice.

[dreamer100]

Vicky

It works-keep at it. Over time you will be able to build-up trust and open up.

It is natural to be anxious about it as you may visit areas that are sensitive and tender.

However, stay focussed on what you wanna get out of it-you will feel better.

Good luck

[debs71]

Hi Vicky,

It is totally normal to feel mentally exhausted and have heightened anxiety after your first session. I think that - especially if you haven't fully discussed your anxiety before - it is like an explosion of all those feelings and experiences, and it wears you out. I remember my first counselling session I was not as composed as you. I burst into floods of tears and poured a lot out to my counsellor. I went home feeling drained and anxious, as now I was worrying that I had made a fool of myself in front of the counsellor! After time though, things settled. It is like most anything new really, the more you go, the easier it becomes.

Best wishes.xxxx:hugs:

[Tyke]

Hi Vicky

Confidentiality is usually taken very seriously by people working in counselling. The only circumstances in which it would normally be breached is where there is a serious issue involved - a danger to yourself or to others. They have a duty to deal with any threat of this nature in order to safeguard people. Like Pancho says, you should study their code of conduct if you want clarification.

Tyke