Preparation For Counselling; Practical Strategies.
The first phase of Counselling is determining what it is that you want to achieve. This not only increases your chances of a successful outcome but will motivate you to continue working toward this and help you to measure your progress along the way.
1. The Miracle question
When you have had a problem for an extended period of time, it can be hard to imagine how life would be without it. Not knowing exactly what you are aiming for can make it hard to continue heading in the right direction, especially when the journey is hard. So it can be helpful before you start to clarify this in your own mind. This image can also keep you going when things get tough. The exercise below will help you to do this:
Imagine that when you go to bed tonight a miracle occurs and your eating disorder disappears. However, because you were asleep you do not know that this has happened. Write about the day after the miracle, from the moment that you wake up to when you go to bed at night. Think about what would you and others notice that would make you think that the miracle had occurred.
2. Problems and goals
It is also helpful to outline specific, concrete and measurable goals. This is enable you to monitor your progress, your motivation to continue with change and help you to recognise when you have achieved what you set out to achieve; something that needs to be acknowledged, but something that can easily be minimised once accomplished. As mentioned above it is easy to lose sight of what you are aiming for if you have been stuck in one position for a long time, so start with where you currently are (i.e. identify the problem) and use that to project forward to where you would like to be. Complete the lists below:
