I’ve heard it many times. The question, “Why should I go to a counselor? Why can’t I just talk to a close friend?” On the surface, it sounds logical. After all, your friend knows you, your history, and they are someone you trust. So what’s the problem?
What can a Counselor do that a friend can’t?
Trust and Safety
The comfort of having a friend to confide in is priceless and irreplaceable, but what happens if they were to get upset or offended at something you did? That trust can become compromised and your private life is suddenly public.
I remember a counselee used to confide and share what we would talk about in our sessions with their close friend. One day, they got into an argument over money and this “close friend” started to post pictures and stories on facebook about them. The worst part was that many of the stories they posted online weren’t even true. The damage it caused was terrible and truly heart breaking.
When you work with us, you can be sure that your private information isn’t made public as we are a third party. This means that our sole interest is your betterment. We create a close personal relationship with you, yet are kept “outside the box”. This creates an environment where you can talk about anyone and anything freely without feeling fear, embarrassed, or sad. Remember, we have no gain or benefit by hurting you!
A counselor is trained and certified in ways to actually help you at the time you need most. One of the ways we’re trained is to watch how you react to things by observing your behavior, character, habits, and patterns. Since we are not emotionally involved in your situation as a friend might be, we are better able to evaluate the good and bad without a bias. Once we find these, we are able to recommend the best ways to correct the issues. Finally Alive Counseling Ministries goes many steps further by counseling according to your temperament which goes beyond just your behaviors.
No friend will be able to offer the caliber of expertise a counselor gives. No true friend can be 100% honest to you because the friendship is more important than the issue you are going through. We will be upfront with things as our goal is for you to feel safe, feel better, and be strengthened to live life joyfully.
Finally Alive Counseling Ministries is a Christian Counselor. We are located at 135 South State College Blvd., Suite 200, Brea, CA, 92821.
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