What should I contribute to the counselling process?

When entering into counselling with a psychologist, it is essential that you know what you want to achieve from the counselling process. Your goals should be reasonably specific, but also realistic. It is important that you discuss fully and frankly, the factors that are causing you problems, with your psychologist. Always bear in mind that the essence of therapy is not for the psychologist to tell you what to do, but to enable you to find your own solutions to the problems you are experiencing, together with his/her facilitation. One of the harder aspects of counselling is that very often we may feel worse before we feel better. Therefore, it is important that you build stamina to stay the course, and tolerate the discomfort that comes with the therapeutic process. Lastly, it should be noted that counselling is not a magic potion, and to fully benefit from the process, it is essential to commit to regular, usually weekly, sessions. If the continuity is broken, you may risk drifting back to the default position you were trying to move away from.