Men are generally a lot less likely than women to seek help with their healthcare, relationships, work or emotional problems. You are not alone with your feelings of ambivalence, confusion and anger about what to do about emotional problems. As men we fix things, cut to the chase, solve problems and certainly don’t waste time with feelings and other non-practical or feminine realities.
Unfortunately these strategies are not so healthy for us. In the short run they help us alleviate the anxiety being caused by a problem that we don’t know how to solve. But in the long run they allow serious problems in our lives to fester and grow until they become too large to handle. Too much to handle: there goes the job; a medical condition that has gotten worse without medical care, or the relationship or life goal that becomes out of reach. And medicating the emotional pain with alcohol and or drugs only makes the situation worse.
Counseling or therapy whatever you chose to call it gives you a safe and confidential place to try and understand what is happening in your life with your relationships and within yourself. It gives you a place to find ways with the therapist’s help to overcome barriers that are keeping you from a more satisfying life. The meetings with the therapist are controlled by you in terms of what you want to talk about and the pace of the movement of the conversations. The number of sessions are also set by you and can be several sessions or longer term work.
Counseling and psychotherapy are generally considered to be similar. Counseling tends to be problem focused and short term and psychotherapy can work more comprehensively on life challenges over a longer time.
Research has consistently demonstrated that one of the most important factors in successful treatment is the relationship, trust and empathy that develops between the therapist and individual. We will work on the issues you want to work on at the pace that is comfortable for you. At the end of our first meeting we will talk about whether you feel that our relationship and work feels right for you. It is very important that you feel our relationship is a good match for what you need!