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Personal Counselling Services
FAQs
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FAQs

What is counselling?
Personal counselling is, typically, a “conversation” in which the client and the counsellor work together to achieve the client’s goals for change or improvement. In counselling one (or more) persons speak with a trained professional who may provide help in exploring difficult questions/issues or in resolving current dilemmas. Individuals seek resources outside themselves when they find they are no longer able to effectively deal with situations or changes in their lives. Some may feel stagnated in their lives and want to explore ways in which to make effective changes. Counselling can be helpful in improving relationships and in developing skills in various areas of people’s lives.

Advice-giving is not typically a part of the counselling process. Rather the process is based primarily on exploration of issues or concerns. When the counsellor is sought in an emergency situation, however, the goal is to address any safety issues and to connect the client to resources that would help relieve the current difficulty triggering the emergency/crisis.

Who seeks counselling?
A diverse range of students, both undergraduate and graduate, use our personal counselling services. People seek counselling for a wide range of issues and concerns. You do not need to be in crisis to benefit from counselling.

Common issues for which people seek counselling are:

How can counselling help me?
Most people can handle some level of personal stress. However, there are times in people’s lives when the stress demands more energy and resources than they feel they have available. Sometimes, when dealing with sensitive personal problems, people find that talking to an impartial person helps them gain a better perspective than talking to a friend or relative.

Counselling consists mainly of collaborating with a counsellor to work on the goals you set for changes in your life. You may want to improve your relationships, or you may be seeking help in dealing with anxiety, anger, depression, or simply coping with the multiple roles in your life such as being a student, son/daughter, employee, intimate partner, caregiver and parent.

Counselling can help people remember the strengths they have, identify the specific problem they are experiencing and determine the direction they need to take once they have identified the problem. Counselling can be both reassuring/supportive as well as challenging, as you look at the options available to you and the part you can play in remedying the current difficult circumstances. Many individuals in counselling look forward to spending an hour every week or two with a counsellor as they sort out their issues.

While counselling is meant to be a helpful experience, this cannot be guaranteed — either with regard to the process involved or the eventual outcome. It is not uncommon for clients to experience an increase in symptoms or emotional discomfort prior to any potential improvement or to realize there are other issues to be addressed. However, depending on the nature of the difficulties addressed, the potential benefits of counselling include:

How can I make the best of my counselling sessions?
Counselling offers no magical solutions to the problems you bring with you. Clients may find that as they begin to work on their problem, things get worse before they get better. To a great extent, the progress you make in counselling rests on your genuine, honest and active participation in the process.

There are several things you can do to help make the counselling process work for you:

The success of your counselling experience also involves your willingness to give feedback to your counsellor. This includes letting your counsellor know what you think is working and where you have concerns. Rather than drop out of counselling, giving this kind of feedback offers you both the opportunity to revisit the way you had been working up to this point and allows you to determine what might continue to be helpful.

What is a typical session like?
Ongoing counselling sessions are different from the initial consultation session. In the initial session, the counsellor focuses on assessing the problem that brings you to Personal Counselling Services. This is to help us determine whether our services are best suited to your needs. When you come in for your first ongoing session, the counsellor may cover some of the information already given on the first visit. However, the aim of this session is to allow you to talk more about your presenting concern and hopefully to determine the goals you have in mind. The counsellor will help you think through what you want to do to address the concern, with a view to identifying goals for change. Subsequent sessions will be based on what you bring to therapy as related to the goals you have established for improvement. A typical session lasts approximately 50 minutes. There is usually a week or two between counselling sessions.

The ongoing counselling sessions are times during which you and your counsellor collaborate to identify solutions to problems and help you to find new ways to look at life. One of the advantages of seeing a counsellor on an on-going basis is that you have the opportunity to form a respectful, working alliance which many have found to be very helpful to the success of a counselling encounter.

What is the difference between individual and group counselling?
At Personal Counselling Services, we offer counselling both to individuals and in group settings. If you are offered the individual counselling option after your initial session, you will likely meet with a counsellor once every week or two for several weeks. You and your counsellor will discuss and explore the problem(s) that brought you to us. It is hoped that within several sessions, you will have a clearer perspective on what your options are and that you will feel ready and willing to make the necessary changes. As this is a short-term facility, at some time during the counselling relationship your counsellor may discuss with you possible referrals to other agencies or professionals to address longer-term issues that may surface in the process of your counselling sessions.

We also offer several groups and workshops during the fall and winter terms. A counselling group is a small group of people, usually between six and 10 persons, who meet weekly with one or two counsellors to talk about their concerns. Some groups may focus on a specific topic, e.g. body image, shyness or anxiety. Other groups may address a variety of concerns, e.g. growing up in difficult, chaotic family environments or concerns with which specific populations are faced. As most problems presented in a counselling situation are interpersonal in nature, the group experience is often the optimal forum for exploring such concerns in a safe setting. Workshops on such topics as anger or anxiety management typically include up to 15 persons. Registration for groups and workshops typically takes place towards the end of September and after the middle of January.

Will other people know that I am seeing a counsellor?
We recognize that confidentiality is extremely important and we assure it within applicable legal and ethical guidelines. Counsellors take all possible precautions to maintain client confidentiality and guard against the disclosure of personal information unless informed, written consent has been obtained from the client. Moreover, neither information shared in the counselling process nor the fact of your attendance at Personak Counselling Services will be shared with faculty, parents, or any other third party without your consent. However, there are situations (such as the neglect/abuse of a child or when clients are a danger to themselves or others) where counsellors are obligated by law and/or ethical professional standards to report information to relevant authorities/third parties. Your counsellor will review our confidentiality policy with you at the beginning of your first session. Please see our privacy policy for further information.

Counselling & Disability Services (CDS)
Tel: 416-736-5297
Location: N110 Bennett Centre for Student Services