According to Mind (www.mind.org.uk) one in four people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in England. ‘Time to talk day’ is on the 2nd February this year and is about encouraging everyone to talk more about mental health and removing any ‘stigma’ that some people may feel around talking about their own mental health. A conversation about mental health could potentially make a big difference. This article looks at the benefits of counselling and how speaking with a Care first Counsellor could have a beneficial impact on your mental wellbeing.
Counselling is often considered an effective tool to help support with stress, low mood, anxiety and depression. Counselling can also be used to support a variety of day-to-day issues including; relationship problems, family issues, bereavement, work related issues, difficult life events and many more. Care first employ BACP accredited Counsellors who are all Management trained and qualified with the minimum of a Diploma. Everyone has very individual needs for support, Care first provides short term focussed counselling, so the Care first Counsellor will assess your circumstances when you call to establish what the most appropriate form of support will be for you. It might be that you just need a brief conversation with the Counsellor that day, or it could be that you may benefit from a few more sessions.
How counselling can have a beneficial impact on your mental wellbeing
- See your thoughts from a different point of view – Speaking to someone else, especially a Counsellor who is impartial and independent away from the situation can help to give you a different view point and may help you to think about things in a different way.
- Feel less alone in your problems – Sharing any issues you may have with a Counsellor may help you to feel better because you have discussed it with someone else. A Counsellor can often be a good person to share your problems or worries with as they are impartial and non-judgemental. It may also help by getting “everything off your chest” and talking about your feelings can help you to feel less burdened by them.
- Increased level of self-awareness – Speaking with a Counsellor can help you to see yourself and your situation from the outside looking in. This can
be very beneficial at making you more content with yourself and may benefit your overall self-esteem. - Help you to take control – Counselling can help by identifying the elements in your life to focus on that you can control. This can help you to move forward.
- Talking is good for you – Talking about issues may help you to start dealing with them. By not talking about issues, we tend to go over and over them in our mind which is not good for our mental wellbeing and can also affect other aspects of our overall wellbeing such as our sleep patterns for example.
- Challenge your mind – By speaking with a Counsellor you may think about things from a different perspective and challenge your own mind to why you feel the way you do, how you might approach things differently, or what might be causing you to feel the way you do.
- Can empower you – Talking therapies involve the individual and the Counsellor playing active roles. By you having to play an active
part in the counselling may help you to feel empowered at a time when you may feel like you have lost control of your life or parts of your life. - Different Emotions – Counselling can help you to cope and manage with a variety of different emotions from grief, guilt, anger, sadness, confusion and low self-esteem to name a few.
How can Care first help?
If you feel you may need some emotional or practical support, you can contact Care first on the Freephone number. Care first is a leading provider of confidential, professional counselling, information and advice services. Whilst our BACP accredited Counsellors are available 24/7 to provide support with emotional issues, our expertly trained Information Specialists are available 8am-8pm Monday-Friday to provide advice on any practical issues that may be causing you a stress or worry and help you feel more in control of a situation.
All employees are eligible to use Care first, our services include; telephone counselling, information services and online support. Call Care first on the Freephone number provided by your organisation and you can speak to a professional in confidence.
More information
If you would like to view the Webinar on ‘Time to Talk Day’, it is being delivered live on Monday 30th January 2023 at 12:00pm-12:30pm, please use the following link to register for this session –
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7658158289486174043
If you are unable to join the webinar live, a recording of the session can be accessed using the same link above after the webinar has taken place.