About Well-Being Counseling Services
Counseling services offered on this site are designed to address well-being and quality of life (QoL), particularly in the wake of major changes resulting from illness, aging, or an accident. One main perspective held here is that achieving and maintaining psychological well-being is crucial. Working with clients to improve this aspect of their well-being is the main emphasis and goal of these services. Supportive and/or therapeutic interventions that are holistic in design are provided as requested. Services are not based on a ‘fix it’ mentality; or determined by a presenting DSM-V diagnosis or an assigned ICD-10 Code obtained elsewhere.
Sometimes, a diagnosis may be taken into consideration as a reference or starting point of engagement if a client requests such because he or she identifies the label as helpful in communicating specific details of a presenting challenge. If a client wishes to incorporate common interventions associated with his or her mental health diagnosis into their services plan, a previously established ICD-10 diagnosis might facilitate treatment. However, the perspective always held is that a client is more than his or her diagnosis. A mental health or physical diagnosis does not define an individual or orient the clinician to all the possibilities for support.
Well-being counseling focuses on a few main areas that include working with clients dealing with:
- Depression and anxiety
- Stress-related mood disturbances
- Relationship issues to self and others
- Guilt, shame and/or ambivalence
- Grief and loss, and sudden major change issues
Patients, caregivers, and loved ones often experience distress associated with illness, and death and dying. Well-being services are specifically designed to provide support with these inevitable life events. Clients are offered support and guidance around common issues associated with; treatment side effects, health-related expenses, navigating the healthcare system, understanding medical insurance guidelines of service, performing caregiving tasks, or dealing with advance care planning. These and other kinds of challenges can affect who we believe ourselves to be at the deepest levels. An Existential-Humanistic psychotherapeutic orientation serves as a backdrop for engaging clients for this reason.
This overarching orientation is a compassionate and effective way of helping clients understand a presenting situation as well as way of designing goals and treatment interventions. Associated with the humanistic approach are the notions of empathetic attunement. mirroring and modeling, and active listening. These terms describe an intention for connecting and interrelating in a manner that facilitates creating a safe, warm, welcoming, and non-judgmental environment. Additionally, the concepts of holistic systems thinking, ‘lead by following’, and person-centered care are incorporated into each session. Together, these elements provide a nurturing therapeutic environment for clients to share and explore their thoughts and feelings.
A fundamental quality of systems thinking is inter-relating. Relationships are what universally and uniquely influence our well-being, which enhances our quality of life. In specific terms, our mind, sensations, and feelings are continually affected by interrelating factors that are inside and outside of us. Our outside or external relationships among family, social, religious, and cultural systems, for instance, are continually being assimilated (digested and organized) among our inner relationships consisting of our assumptions, beliefs, hopes, expectations, and dreams. When combined, our internal and external relationship dynamics engage us in what we consciously identify as the ‘I AM’ experiencer. ‘I AM’ is associated with the term self-concept.
Support services are a part of well-being counseling that focuses primarily on psycho-education, validating a client’s perspective without colluding or enabling, offering professional perspective, and providing vetted referrals. Supportive services tend to focus on external factors contributing to changes with mood and thinking as well as stress. Therapeutic well-being counseling services, on the other hand, consider internal factors such as those related to beliefs, assumptions, memories or past experiences, hopes and dreams, and unprocessed relationships, and life events. A client may choose supportive or therapeutic services or a combination of both as he or she feels.
As stated above, we hold the perspective that relationships, particularly, the experience of relating with self, others, or a situation, are a fundamental determining factor of our well-being. Furthermore, and in line with the notion of systems thinking identifying the mind-body connection, the nature and quality of relating to “Something More” is very important. Something More incorporates aspects of our humanity that include our sense of Being*, a desire for Becoming*, and a need for connecting through caring to something outside our limiting sense of self.
Bringing mind-body-spirit aspects into a person-centered modality expands the realm of possibilities for addressing challenges in a way that utilizes the notions of being, becoming, and “Something More” to make interventions more effective. This approach to dealing with issues builds upon the hospice model, which is often referred to as a bio-psycho-social and spiritual (being) model, which is a proven and effective model for working with patients, caregivers, and families.
Something More is utilized as a cornerstone concept that ties together life events associated with ‘being’, ‘doing’, and ‘becoming’ within a context of caring about something or someone that brings about a fulfilling experience of meaning. Something More is a term used to describe presence with intention and direction in our life. It takes us out of our limiting sense of self into a realm of connecting through extension. Suffering and pain can become unbearable in the face of overwhelming uncertainty that can draw us into an event so deeply that we become concentered on the self and unable to maintain a sense of identity; we become the experience instead of a being having the experience. A focus of attention directed outwards upon someone or something else that means a lot to us and that we care about can reduce our pain and suffering.
Finally, one major challenge common to almost all presenting problems is the uncontrollable and unwanted change of the status quo, the familiar, expected, and the ‘normal’. Helping a client adjust and adapt to changing circumstances is another key intention and focus of engagement in both supportive and therapeutic services. Experiencing a sense of loss is central to the human condition. Moreover, a need to process loss in healthy ways is essential to psychological well-being. Tangible losses cause us not only grief, but also what is referred to as symbolic loss. This aspect of loss is really at the heart of experiencing suffering. Addressing unresolved and especially unacknowledged loss is a principal focus during sessions.
How It Works
Complete and submit all forms as part of the intake packet click [here]. Someone will contact you after your payment processes to set up a time and date for an individual, couple, or a family counseling session. If you are interested in participating in either an ongoing or time limited group, you will receive details regarding these services. In addition, you will receive a reminder email 24 hours before the scheduled appointment, meeting, or event.
NOTE: Availability to respond to inquiry and/or to provide services is limited at this time. For more details click [here]