What is Counselling?
When you work with a counsellor, you will spend time exploring your current experience and what you would like to see be different in your future. Sometimes counselling involves looking to your past and trying to understand how those past experiences have informed who you are in the present as well. Counselling should be a collaborative process, and one where you as the client are the person in charge of setting the goals of counselling and how you want to get there.
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Counselling involves an assessment stage, where you and your counsellor gather information about what is going on for you now. This can be done using formal assessment like surveys and scales, or it can be a more informal process where you and your counsellor discuss your experience. From this, you and your counsellor will discuss the goals of your counselling and begin working toward that goal together. To achieve those goals, you can expect to do a variety of exercises, self-exploration, and emotional processing, based on your counsellor’s expertise and clinical judgement.
When you work with a clinical counsellor, you are working with a counsellor who is a member of a professional association. Here in BC, both Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCCs) and Canadian Certified Counsellors (CCCs) are members of groups who set standards of practice and professionalism. Another well-regulated designation is RPsych, which is the designation Registered Psychologists hold. If you work with a counsellor with any of these designations, you can trust that your counsellor is a member in good standing, with current learning and a commitment to uphold a code of ethics.
It is important to note that working with a clinical counsellor is work that is focused on making changes to your life and your future; RCCs and CCCs do not have the qualifications to formally diagnose mental health conditions. If you are seeking a formal diagnosis, this requires working with a psychologist or a medical doctor. However, clinical counsellors are qualified to work with a variety of mental health concerns. We can explore your experience and work with you in a collaborative way to discuss what your goals are, what that would entail, and work collaboratively with other professionals as needed for your care.