Before you begin marriage counseling, this question
There is an important question you must ask the marriage counselor you and your spouse are considering using. The question itself may surprise you and answer your potential counselor gives.
This is a problem often overlooked almost never mentioned. The therapists did not include it in articles they write about how to choose a good advisor, then you have little chance of reading about it. I have never heard of the issue that is discussed in the popular daytime television shows that many further arguments.
But the answer to this important question to save time, money and energy spent with the therapist wrong. It ‘a good question to use as a factor in deciding whether to limit the search for a marriage counselor two or three possibilities, and all seemed about equal in education, training and experience.
What is the question that seems so important that it could be the vote “decision” in selecting a therapist for marriage counseling? Here it is. Ask the potential marriage counselor (s): “Have you ever participated in extensive personal therapy yourself?”
Then observe the reaction of the therapist and to listen carefully to what he says. Attention to the emotional tone in the response. Consider the following responses to the question proposed. My comments are italicized in brackets:
1. “No, I never had to go to counseling.
(It’s never been? “You mean you’re” above “having to go to counseling? That only persons who are not as emotionally stable as” have “to go, how can you even know what ‘is like going to a stranger office and tell a stranger the most intimate details of your life?)
2. “Yes, I went once to several times, when my father died.”
(E ‘a bit’ better, but what about that self-growth work counselors are always advocating others do? Do not you take your own advice?)
3. “No
(E ’strange. Why a reply in one word? E’ a logical question to ask. Why should I entrust my vulnerability and something as important as my wedding, if you’ve never been to counseling, too, because you do not you? No you believe in what you offer?)
4. “I attended some advice when I made my way to my studies.”
(You mean that the role played by other students in some of your classes, counseling or not. You were not in a real situation and the advice was probably focused on what their classmates classroom teacher and the thought of your role play. This is totally different from participating in therapy to look closely at your real problems.)
5. “Yes, I have. I have had several years of intensive personal counseling, and I still see a counselor when things happen that I need to process. I know what courage and commitment necessary to deal with personal problems, avoid blaming others and take responsibility for the quality of life. ”
(Yes, that’s the one! He (or she) has gone through the consultation process itself. It is not just something that has never known, and there seems no shame was counseling. Instead, he sounds proud of himself for make that choice. I like that “puts into practice what they preach” About Counseling. I guess that helps one way or he would not spend so much time and money advice to himself.)
Are you surprised to learn that many advisers have never participated in counseling as clients and have never dealt with the individual or relationship problems? They could get their degree and licensed without having participated in counseling for personal growth? E ’shocking to think that could happen, but it does, often.
Think about it: you want to go to a therapist who recommends counseling to others, but never had his (or her) own advice? Who did not address his personal problems, past and present that could influence its recommendations for you? Who does not know exactly how you feel vulnerable as a customer and how much courage it takes to make an appointment, sitting in the waiting room before you talk openly to someone you’ve never seen before?
I can say unequivocally that you should steer clear counselors who have done their work or counseling, individual counseling, relationship or a marriage counselor, or both. There is a proverb that says he can not take other people beyond yourself have been.
And ‘certainly true when it comes to counseling. The advisor should be very familiar with the terrain, knowledge is not only theoretical, but from personal experience, too. He (or she) must also be able to attend easily entangled in its unresolved issues, something personal counseling helps a counselor to do so more efficiently.
So before signing a marriage counselor, the important question – Have you ever participated in extensive personal therapy yourself? “And is that the counselor you select knows the advantages of personal counseling, First Hand.
