Approach
I believe being able to balance all of the areas of our lives will make us feel more confident and give us the ability to manage stress and take on new challenges with more self esteem. Having the ability to find that balance in life is not always an easy accomplishment because it requires taking a look at what is holding us back. Whether it is in our professional or personal lives many of us establish behaviors that work against us, keeping us from accomplishing our goals.
Often being able to be successful in our lives means looking at events and feelings that are harmful and dealing with them in the here and now. As we move through the counseling process questions arise and will be dealt with as they come up. Some questions that may come up are: how the behaviors and events in our past affect our life now, how can we work to get past them, what are we “protecting” ourselves from, and are we feeling in control our lives. All these questions, and more, can help us take a look at where we are now and were we want to be in the future.
When we experience something painful and difficult in our lives our first response is to try to push those memories and painful feelings as far away as possible. We think that by burying those feelings or painful memories they will go away. But, we have not dealt with the problem. It will only manifest itself as anxiety attacks, depression, destructive behaviors, or other problems that tell us that we have only been covering up the pain, not dealing with it. Being able to acknowledge that some of our behaviors are destructive and create a pattern of bad choices that only take us further from living a balanced life is not something that comes easily, but it is the first step to create change.
The next step is making a commitment to work through what holds you back from creating that balance, and, together we will work to identify the behaviors, what purposes they serve, and what areas of your life are being ignored by perpetuating these behaviors. I believe looking at your entire life in the here and now can help guide you through the person you are, to become the person you want to be.