Where does the work happen?

 Consider sports teams, I would say high school age and onward. Winning coaches will tell you that championships are won during the practice sessions and the off-season. This is where the lasting work takes place. The games are the performances, the showcases of the hard work that was carried out not in front of the cameras and audiences, but during the off season and in practices.

For the non-athletic types, consider classroom sessions. Attending a lecture presents the material. But a student will not remember the information unless and until STUDY and HOMEWORK occurs.

So it is with counseling...

Counseling is about seeking assistance due to some perceived need or experienced event, where the need or event is causing or has caused distress to an individual, in order to make a change or changes in one’s life or how someone deals with life. That’s a pretty basic explanation but this isn’t the place to get into it too much. But in short, the changes take place off the field or court... during practice or in the off season. So it is with counseling and what will need to happen for a client to experience change: Work OUTSIDE of the sessions, at home, in school, at work, will need to occur. In your sessions you will be asked to do things outside the counseling sessions. 

I encourage each client to view their sessions as learning sessions and I encourage note-taking and out-of-session journaling. Journaling allows you to record thoughts, feelings, and observations, and then to bring the journal to the sessions as this will help the client remember what they discovered or experienced during the time between sessions. This is the material for productive sessions. 

Clients will tell me that they don’t like to write. These writings don’t need to be long. It might just be a few words, recorded in a phone, that the client can be