Top three reasons I love being a Counsellor.

Counselling is my chosen profession and my passion for a variety of reasons. First of all, I am not a fan of small talk. It serves well as an ice-breaker but once done, I prefer to get to the heart of things. I love a conversation of depth, emotion and passion that is authentic. Deep and meaningful conversations are just the way I roll anyway.

I also get such enjoyment out of helping empower women to regain their mental health and achieve their emotional goals. At the same time it is a good feeling to be contributing to more awareness and acceptance on mental health issues in the world. I do this through being honest about my own struggle and eventual triumph with self-worth and depression, while also discussing and writing about mental health whenever I can.

However, the top reasons and by far the elements that will keep me in this job until I’m old and very grey are these:

1. Client breakthroughs

2. Client breakthroughs

3. Client breakthroughs

I simply cannot stress these enough :)

It is such an honour to be present, and witness the look of surprise and relief cross a clients face when the revelation hits. That breakthrough is simply and purely beautiful. They’ve done the work, put in the thought, done some alone time and the lightbulb has come on strong and powerful. And these breakthroughs do come on suddenly at times too. The last couple of months I have seen a flurry of them in my counselling space and it brings me pure joy. It’s actually hard to hold back the tear in the eye. But it’s their victory.

I always make sure we acknowledge the moment and repeat what she has just discovered or allowed to come to the surface. The amazing thing with breakthroughs is you CANNOT UNKNOW what you now KNOW. So you can only go forward from this place, you won’t go backward after a revelation. It means that you have grown and sometimes it does takes a breakdown of mental health or emotional control to experience that breakthrough.

Struggle is an opportunity for growth. And remember;

“Growth is uncomfortable because you have never been here before- you’ve never been this version of you. So give yourself a little grace and breathe through it” Kristin Lohr (WeAreSoulSparks).