There are many different types of counseling available to those who are suffering from some sort of disease or affliction. Whether you have a drug addiction, or suffer from depression, seeking out help is one of the best and safest ways to recover. Odds are that your first thought would be to seek help from a traditional counselor or psychologist. These traditional therapists have been professionally trained in a number of areas to help patients recover from various afflictions.
It is important to realize that there are other forms of counseling out there that have proven to be effective. So whether you don’t like the idea of going to see a traditional therapist or if it hasn’t worked for you, there are other recovery options.
Art, Dance, Music Therapy
One of the more interesting ways is through artistic therapy. This can include art therapy, dance therapy, and musical therapy. All three base their practice in the healing properties of the arts.
For example, art therapy focuses on the art-making process. It acts a therapeutic method as well as used in therapy, in the form of art psychotherapy. Therapists can interpret their patient’s self-expression demonstrated through the art they create.
Dance therapy or movement therapy is a psycho-therapeutic use of movement to support intellect, emotion, and motor functions. Similar to how an art therapist would examine their patient’s artwork, a dance therapist would examine their patient’s body movement and its connection to emotion.
Music therapy is a form of expressive therapy used to improve a patient’s physical and mental health. This can include musical experiences such as improvisation, singing, listening to music, talking about music, and more.
Co-Counseling
Co-counseling is a different form of counseling in which peers actually take turns taking the role of counselor and patient. The participants meet on a regular basis to provide peer-to-peer counseling. There is occasionally a third-party observer, however the main goal of this type of counseling is to provide flexibility. So instead of the patient always being the patient, they have the chance to help someone else. In helping other people, a person can actually begin to heal themselves. Co-counseling usually involves some form of prior course in order to get involved.
Christian Counseling
Christian counseling is a faith-based counseling method usually using a pastor as a counselor. One of the main benefits of Christian counseling, is the focus on the soul of a person. Whereas traditional counseling focuses very closely on the mind, Christian counseling also focuses on instilling a sense of hope and faith within a patient. Patients are often looking for more than just recovery; they are looking for meaning and purpose which make this faith-based form of counseling a very popular choice.
Online Counseling
Another type of counseling that often is not considered first is online counseling. Counseling services are offered through the internet in a variety of ways including, email, real-time chat, and video conferencing. Just like healthcare, this form of counseling is often being used as a substitute for office visits. As long as the therapy is as effective, this can save both the patient and therapist the hassle of meeting face-to-face. This form of counseling is only expected to grow as broadbands have gotten better and more and more people are adopting the use of video-chatting.
Narrative Therapy
Finally, narrative therapy is another type of counseling you may not have considered yet. Like its name suggests, this therapy focuses on the actual narrative in the therapy. A narrative therapist has the goal of creating a richer narrative during sessions. They may prompt discussions of vivid descriptions that are not currently being discussed within the therapy that allows them to create a much more in-depth narrative.
This form of therapy also aims to separate the person from their qualities or attributes that are potentially causing the problem. An expression used commonly in narrative therapy is “the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem”. This allows patients to disassociate themselves from certain behaviors and better conceptualize why they are problems instead of seeing themselves as the problem.
If traditional counseling has not been successful for you, don’t write off therapy just yet. There are plenty of types of counseling services that you can try that may make a huge difference in your life.
