– What is Individual Counseling in Nashville TN?

Last Updated on March 5, 2015 by Chris Roberts

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING IN NASHVILLE TN AND ITS BENEFITS

References “Rules of Tennessee Board for Professional Counselors, Marital and Family Therapists, and Clinical Pastoral Therapists. Chapter 0450-1 General Rules Governing Professional Counselors.” Revised July, 2007.

Individual counseling is a collaboration between two people for the enhancement and growth of their personal life.  “Collaboration” is a nuanced phrasing that basically means two people working together to determine the best possible modes and methods for helping a person’s life move forward in a positive direction.  Individual counseling has some of the components of a highly functioning friendship, with the exception that the “counselor” always has more power in the relationship simply because the client is coming to and compensating the counselor for their expertise.  But, good, healthy individual counseling should not simply be a dispensing of information or wisdom or advice from the counselor to the client.

Good individual counseling should consist of both parties listening to and engaging in the struggles and conflict and complexities of the relationship within the counseling setting.  The best individual counselors are not gurus who have transcended the mundane normalcies of everyday life.  No one can escape this reality.  A healthy individual counselor has often, however, spent more time and is more comfortable with their emotions, and longings, and desires that are inherent in every person.  The counselor also has specific training and education and qualifications that render them more experienced in the realm of psychology and the mind.

The Tennessee Board for Professional Counselors describes individual counseling as, “Assisting an individual, through the counseling relationship, in a manner intended to facilitate normal human growth and development, using a combination of mental health and human development principles, methods and techniques, to achieve mental, emotional, physical, social, moral, educational, spiritual, and/or career development and adjustment through the lifespan.” (p. 3)  This is a wonderful definition, because the opening statement claims it is all “through the counseling relationship.”  There are many methods and theories dealing with how to effectively help people move into healthier states of being, but at the end of the day, what people want are more harmonious relationships.  And these relationships can be with other people, with themselves, or simply with the environment around them.  The point of the counseling relationship is that the counselor is always attuned to, and most interested in, what the client is looking for and what the client needs.

Research after research has shown that oftentimes the most beneficial factor in individual counseling is the relationship between the counselor and client.  Self-help books and seminars are fantastic for disseminating information that is almost always helpful for people living better lives.  But there is something different that happens when two people get together to work on improving their life.  Individual counseling exists to provide a different, but no less real, relationship between two people in order to facilitate growth based on actual conversations and engagement.  Two Trees Counseling Nashville exists to provide people in the Nashville, TN area with an opportunity to live life to the fullest.

Chris Roberts is the individual counselor at Two Trees Counseling Nashville and would be happy to speak with you more about your concerns or your questions about individual counseling.  It is never easy to get started with individual counseling, and sometimes a short conversation on the phone is the best way to begin the process.