- Having trouble sleeping
- Feeling physically sick and your stomach is tight
- Change in your appetite
- Crying and can’t explain why
- Avoiding people and activities you used to enjoy
- Making a big life change (even if it seems positive)
- Having problems in your relationships with others
- Using substances to cope with unwanted feelings
- Getting angry easily and having trouble identifying your emotions
- Avoiding dealing with things that you need to do
- Procrastinating
- Feeling the need to be perfect all the time
- Being consumed by the problems of others and trying to fix them
- You are hurting yourself
- Beating yourself up with negative self-talk
- Frequently feeling hopeless, ashamed, or anxious
- Mood swings with no explanation
- Avoiding social situations
- Worrying a lot about what other people think about you
- Someone close to you told you they think you need therapy
- Intense emotional reactions that you can’t control
- Aggression
- Feeling unappreciated and used
- Feeling like you should be at a different place in your life
- You want to make a big change
- Expecting others to live up to your expectations
- Wanting to understand yourself and your thinking and choices better
- Wanting to make better choices
- Needing to talk to someone who doesn’t have their own plan for you
- Wanting to change but feeling stuck
Sometimes having someone to talk to who has no agenda other than your best interest can be a relief. Counselors are here to listen to your thoughts and feelings and help you understand your own thinking and feelings. Have you ever noticed that sometimes saying something out loud sounds much different than it does when you’re thinking it in your head? This is one of the reasons that counseling is so beneficial. It helps you to hear yourself by having your thoughts reflected back to you and to think about your thoughts from a different angle.
Counseling provides a safe, confidential space for you to say things out loud you may never have said before and to process that with a trained professional. People ask all the time, “Is that normal?” Many times people think they are so very different from everyone else but in counseling they find that a lot of other people have the same problems and think about things in the same way. As mental health professionals, we can help you find your path and walk it with confidence.