Change is driven mainly by positive influences already operating in your life and by a solid relationship with your counselor.
As a Gay Men's Counseling
client, you set the therapeutic
agenda and evaluate both the
counseling relationship and your
own progress. Avoiding both judgment
and diagnosis, your counselor
tries to relate not as an "expert"
but as a fellow human being.
When your counselor communicates caring and respect and demonstrates
a genuine interest in understanding as deeply as possible your experience and situation,
change occurs almost from the first moment of counseling.
General improvements noticed by many clients include:
- Movement from a muted awareness of inner experience to a more immediate
awareness and expression of it.
- Movement from less open communication with the counselor to more direct
and spontaneous communication.
- Movement from disapproval of self to greater self-acceptance.
- Movement from a more rigid construction of reality to a more flexible
and nuanced one.
- Movement from a more narrow and defended self-image to one that is more
relaxed and reality-based.
- Movement from decision-making based on what others think to choices based
on personal wishes.
- Increased self-esteem and enhanced self-confidence.
- Reduced anxiety and increased motivation to persist in managing personal
problems.
- Less fear of the world and increased openness to experience.
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