Hi, I’m Lars Andersson. I’ve been a counsellor in private practice in Brisbane for more than 20 years. This slide deck is an attempt to offer a brief answer to questions such as, “What is counselling?” “How can a counsellor help?” I hope you find it helpful!

1. What is Counselling?
How can a
counsellor help?

2. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
Counselling is a process, where
two or more people get together
with the specific intention
of exploring and addressing
some issue or problem
of a personal nature

3. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
This may take place
as individual counselling,
as couple counselling,
or as family counselling

4. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
A counsellor has expertise in
how personal issues develop,
and how to resolve them.
It is NOT his job to tell you
what to do about your problem,
but rather to suggest how you
can explore the issue.

5. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
A good counsellor is skilful in
recognising ideas and suggestions
that are relevant to each client,
but the bottom line is that
YOU are a unique person, and
YOU are the expert on what works
or doesn’t work for YOU.

6. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
Counselling is a collaborative
process, a team work, and
it is essential that the counsellor
and the client work well together.
Research shows that this is the
most important factor for making
counselling successful!

7. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
The counselling relationship can be
seen as the vehicle that is used for
the therapeutic journey.
The better the quality of the vehicle
the more enjoyable the ride will be,
and the easier you will reach
your desired goal.

8. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
You will have opportunities
to explore your difficulties from
various angles, to develop more
awareness and understanding
of your feelings, behaviours,
motivations, choices and decisions.

9. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
As a result, you will be able to
develop better ways of handling
the kind of situations
that you have struggled with.

10. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
Sometimes the counsellor’s role is
simply to be a good listener;
someone who is able to
really hear and understand
your difficulties;
someone who can acknowledge
and validate your experience.

11. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
Other times the counsellor’s role is
to provide new angles
for looking at a situation.
Counselling will help you discover
what is hiding in your "blind spots",
and help you develop new skills
for tackling your issues.

12. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
The counsellor may challenge your
patterns of thinking and reasoning.
That can be intriguing,
and even confronting at times.

13. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
As long as the working relationship
is good, and challenges are offered
in a manner that demonstrates
caring for your wellbeing,
you will find the experience
empowering
rather than disempowering.

14. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
Good counselling is an enjoyable
and refreshing process,
full of “aha-moments”;
insights into how to deal with
issues you have struggled with,
as well as with issues that may
come up in the future.

15. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
Life will never stop presenting us
with new challenges to deal with.
Good counselling makes you better
at handling these on your own,
rather than making you dependent
on the counsellor for dealing
with new issues that come up.

16. What is counselling? How can a counsellor help?
Integrating Awareness © www.IntAwa.com.au
To find out more about how
counselling can help you,
and how you can enjoy your
life to its full potential,
please, visit my website:
http://www.IntAwa.com.au