For a long time now counseling has had a negative stigma attached that has kept people from seeking help. Often people have wrongly viewed those who reach out for help as weak or incapable of handling their own problems. However, it is quite the opposite, only those who are strong enough to admit their struggle and are ready to deal with it reach out for the help of a counselor. Coming to a counselor is admitting that life is difficult and that some problems are too large to tackle without the help and encouragement of another.
Why Counseling?
Counseling provides an artificial pairing of two people that allows an individual to talk openly with someone who is an unbiased third party. Often when talking with family or friends no matter how much one tries to be unbiased they will inevitably bring the emotions of the relationship in the conversation.
Anyone living a full, rich life experiences ups and downs, stresses, disappointments, sorrows, and setbacks. Today, however, millions of people who are really no more than “worried well” are being diagnosed as having a mental disorder and receiving unnecessary treatment. In Saving Normal, Allen Frances, one of the world’s most influential psychiatrists, explains why stigmatizing a healthy person as mentally ill leads to unnecessary, harmful medications, the narrowing of horizons, the misallocation of medical resources, and the draining of the budgets of families and the nation. We also shift responsibility for our mental well-being away from our own naturally resilient brains and into the hands of “Big Pharma,” who are reaping multi-billion-dollar profits. 