We all go through various hardships in our daily lives, and, as a result, we cannot focus on performing our tasks with complete precision. Slowly and gradually, the pressure keeps on piling and ultimately, we feel that we need to get services from experts in order to escape from our problems.

This is when the role of a counselor comes into existence. But, before that we need to know what exactly a counselor is. In layman terms, a counselor is an experienced professional who provides services to us in order to get us out from our problems and make our lives hassle free.

Counselling helps individuals, couples, families and sometimes even groups to come out of their problems and lead their lives in a relaxed manner.

Today, when most of us have multiple to-do lists to complete and a limited time frame, we fail to understand that we can only be happy when we start to enjoy life in small bits and pieces. We must always keep in mind that working with a certain amount of stress in our mind never makes us focus on our targets, and as a result, we feel burned out that ultimately creates numerous problems for us.

“Is he/she mentally ill?” That is the first question which people used to ask when someone sought counselling. But gone are those days. Now a days, a lot of individuals, couples and even families try to get professional help to sort through their stressful or emotional feelings.

It is not always possible for us to handle everything on our own. And many a times, we reach out to people closest to us, our friends and family or maybe colleagues. They listen to us, offer comfort and sometimes that is enough to help us steer through the storms. However, at other times, what we truly need is a professional counsellor.
So what is counselling? And what are the approaches used by a counsellor?

Understanding what counselling is not is paramount in understanding the true meaning of counseling.

A counsellor never:

• Gives advice
• Judges
• Attempts to sort out client’s problems
• Imposes his/her own beliefs on client
• Gets emotionally involved with client

Now that the misconceptions about counselling are dealt with, we can start appreciating what professional counselling truly means.