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      • How is the pandemic affecting mental health in teenagers?
    • Types of Disorder
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      • Autism Spectrum Disorder
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      • Bipolar Disorder Symptoms | Causes | Diagnosis
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      • Histrionic Personality Disorder
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Menu
  • Our Therapists
  • What We Treat
  • Services
  • About Us
  • Resources
    • Addiction Guide
      • Adderall Guide | Side Effects
      • Alcohol Addiction
      • Benzodiazepines
      • Cocaine Withdrawal
      • Fentanyl Guide | Addiction Treatment
      • Heroin Addiction Guide
      • Meth Guide
      • Online Alcoholics Anonymous
      • Oxycodone Guide
      • Tramadol Guide | Side Effects | Addiction Treatment
      • Xanax Guide
      • How a Substance Abuse Counselor Helps
      • Spirituality in Addiction Treatment  
    • Behavioral Health
      • How can counseling help depression?
      • Treatments for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
    • Bipolar Disorder
      • Bipolar Disorder: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment
      • Is bipolar disorder genetic and triggered later on?
      • Is cognitive therapy effective for bipolar disorder?
    • Children & Adolescents Guide
      • 10 Warning Signs of Teenage Mental Illness
      • Munchausen Syndrome
      • How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers’ Mental Health?
      • Oppositional Defiant Disorder
      • Spotting Types of Depression in Children
      • Teen Suicide
      • Top Tips For Parents
      • Video Game Therapy for ADHD
      • What is a Residential Mental Health Facility for Teenagers Like
      • Why Is Mental Health on the Rise Amongst Teenagers?
    • Is Social Media Ruining Our Self-Esteem? 
    • Mental Health Guide
      • COVID Counseling to Battle Mental Health Issues
      • Guide to Anxiety Medication
      • Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
      • High Functioning Depression | Signs | Symptoms
      • How Can We Prevent Mental Illness in Youth?
      • How Do You Help Someone with Avoidant Personality?
      • How Does Online Counseling Work for Mental Health?
      • How Can a Mental Health Counselor Help
      • Mental Breakdown
      • Schizoid Personality Disorder
      • Postpartum Depression
      • Types of Mood Disorders
      • The Toll of Grief and How to Cope with It
      • What are The Major Affective Disorders?
      • What Cognitive Psychology Teaches Us About How We Think
      • What Is Clinical Mental Health Counseling
      • What are mental health symptoms you should never ignore?
      • What is Bipolar II Disorder? Symptoms and Treatment
      • What is the Difference Between Manic and Hypomanic?
      • What is schizoaffective disorder?
      • Is seasonal affective disorder (SAD) a mental illness?
      • What is substance induced mood disorder?
      • Is Depression a Permanent Mental Disorder?
      • What is the prognosis for Major Depressive Disorder?
    • Marriage Counseling | Benefits
    • Pandemic Related Issues
      • COVID Counseling to Battle Mental Health Issues
      • Work Stress Post-Pandemic
      • Shocking Growth of Anxiety During the Pandemic
    • Relationship Issues
      • How to deal with toxic relationship?
      • How does a toxic relationship affect your mental health?
      • What is gaslighting in a relationship?
      • What is the best way to help a partner who has trust issues?
      • What’s the best way to work out relationship problems?
      • 10 ways to improve communication in relationships
    • Spirituality in Addiction Treatment  
    • Therapy
      • Can I See a Psychiatrist Without a Referral?
      • DBT Therapy for Adolescents
      • DCBT- Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
      • Deep Brain Stimulation to Treat OCD
      • Do I Need a Referral to See a Therapist?
      • Family Therapy: Definition, Types, Techniques, and Efficacy
      • How Can Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) Help Mental Disorders?
      • EMDR Therapy for Mental Health Conditions
      • Psychiatrist vs. Psychologist
      • Is Therapy Covered by Health Insurance?
      • Psychodynamic Therapy vs CBT
      • Psychotherapy
      • SMART Recovery
      • What Can Psychologists Treat
      • What is Group Therapy
      • What is Internal Family Systems Therapy
      • What Is the Role of the Counselor in Family Therapy
      • What Is Psychoanalysis
    • Trauma Bonding With Intimate Partner Violence
    • Teen Mental Health
      • Can a Minor Go to Therapy Without Parents Permission?
      • Teen Co-Occurring Disorders
      • What are the signs of depression in adolescents?
      • warning signs of suicide in adolescents
      • Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Teens
      • How is the pandemic affecting mental health in teenagers?
    • Types of Disorder
      • Anti-Social Personality Disorder
      • Autism Spectrum Disorder
      • Avoidant Personality Disorder
      • Bipolar Disorder Symptoms | Causes | Diagnosis
      • Diagnosing and Treating an Adjustment Disorder
      • Histrionic Personality Disorder
      • Intermittent Explosive Disorder
      • Paranoid Personality Disorder
    • Veterans Guide
      • Functional Medicine for Military
      • Service Dogs Help Veterans with PTSD
    • Process Addiction
      • Gambling addiction
      • How do you know if you have an addictive personality?
      • What is Impulse-Control Disorder?
      • Process Addiction

How Can a Mental Health Counselor Help?

Untreated mental disorders affect the mind, the body, and your life. A mental health counselor may help.

What is a Mental Health Counselor?

Mental health conditions manifest in a variety of ways, and their effects can be dire, so it’s necessary to take the right precautions against them. A mental health counselor should be your go-to provider for mental health treatment, especially for substance use disorders. 1

Mental Health Counselors are licensed professionals who treat the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of substance use disorders and mental health conditions. They work with families, individuals, couples, and groups in a wide range of settings, and provide a variety of functions. Counselors may specialize in treating specific mental health disorders, or cater their services to meet the needs of specific populations.

A counselor’s duties may include providing education, conducting patient evaluations, and giving informational resources to the patient. They may also make suggestions that can be used to address problems in everyday life. Counseling typically most commonly takes place in private, in either offices or clinical settings.

Mental Health Counselors vs. Other Mental Health Professionals

While mental health counselors perform many of the same duties as other mental health professionals, as well as maintaining similar goals (helping patients attain overall wellness), there are some elements that set them apart.

Mental Health Counselors vs. Psychologists

Psychologists and mental health counselors may offer similar services but they are different. Mental health counselors treat depression, bipolar disorders, phobias, substance use disorders, among others. Clinical psychologists evaluate and treat behavioral tendencies. Mental health counselors hold accredited Master of Arts degrees in Counseling, and spend 2-3 years of supervised counseling training. Clinical psychologists hold a doctorate with several years of training and research. 2

Mental Health Counselors vs. Therapists

A therapist is a professionally trained individual who provides therapy to clients. They address either physical or mental disorders. Therapists and counselors occupy the same treatment space and may be used interchangeably at some point. However, the critical difference between therapists and counselors is how they approach treatment.

A counselor may practically address a specific problem, challenge, or behavior by providing tactics to ward off substance abuse cravings or recommending steps to reduce effects of alcoholism. In these cases a counselor uses a targeted and directed problem-solving approach.

Therapists may address similar issues and give similar advice as counselors but therapists differ in that they typically strive to help clients achieve deeper understandings of their problems, resulting in self-motivated decisions as to how to address problems. Additionally, counselors often use a short-term approach when delivering mental health counseling. Therapy may last longer, even months or years, looking for the root cause of problems. 3

How Can a Mental Health Counselor Help?

Mental health counselors can assist in treating a variety of conditions and symptoms, helping patients to develop healthy habits and improved mental wellness.

Conditions Mental Health Counselors Can Help

Mental health counselors can help you or your loved one manage the following conditions:
  • Anxiety – Counselors can help with anxiety by addressing clients’ concerns and providing skills to cope with symptoms of anxiety.
  • Depression – Counselors may help clients with depression identify external factors which contribute to their depression symptoms, and offer suggestions on ways to relieve them.
  • Substance abuse – The support and accountability offered by a counselor is crucial to many people’s recovery from substance use.
  • Sexual dysfunction – Counseling provides clients a safe space to examine anxieties, and cognitive distortions, which may contribute to sexual dysfunction.
  • Eating disorders – Eating disorders are complex and counseling may help clients’ to develop better understandings surrounding their own symptoms and behaviors.
  • Personality disorders – Counseling can be a useful tool for clients to dissect cognitive distortions common in personality disorders.
  • Dementia – Elderly clients affected by dementia may receive benefit from counseling to address the feelings of disorientation caused by the disease.
  • Adjustment disorders – For those who experience significant difficulty in adapting to major life events and changes, counseling can provide clients tools to better manage their symptoms.

Symptoms to Consult a Mental Health Counselor for Assistance With

If you or a loved one experience the following symptoms, consult a mental health counselor, as no one should have to cope with these experiences alone:
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Changes in appetite and/or weight
  • Struggling to focus
  • Losing interest in hobbies and activities
  • Inability to carry on with daily routines
  • Ideations of harming yourself or others

Techniques that Mental Health Counselors Use

It is not enough to receive counseling alone. There are other techniques needed to assist recovery, including:

Promoting Healthy Lifestyles

Living a healthy lifestyle promotes overall well-being. Taking walks, going out into nature or parks can break up the monotony of being in one place for a long time. Listening to music can also be useful.

It’s important to prioritize relaxation and stress relief when feeling overwhelmed. Relaxation techniques like yoga, meditation, or breathing exercises can help feelings of tension. Counselors and therapists may also have specific self-care recommendations for their clients. Eating a balanced, varied diet and getting enough sleep are all important cornerstones of wellbeing.

Identifying Personal Stressors and Levels of Functioning

Stressors can be anything–anything from conversations to household responsibilities. The sooner stressors can be identified, the better. Noticing specific circumstances that trigger mental illness symptoms can let you be aware of and prepare for exposure to triggers, or even avoid them entirely.

Preserving or Restoring Mental Health

Mental health is crucial for overall well-being. A healthy mind leads to a healthy lifestyle. Mental health counselors can help us notice when we’re being overly critical to ourselves, or viewing through a disproportionately negative lens. Maintaining a positive outlook can be a challenge, so having the help of a mental health counselor to encourage and guide positive thinking can help it to develop into a habit.

Different Types of Psychotherapy

Some of the psychotherapies used by mental health clinicians are detailed below.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that helps identify destructive thought patterns that negatively influence emotions and behavior. Once recognized, these patterns can be molded into more positive thoughts and feelings. CBT can be seen as identifying negative thoughts, challenging them, and replacing them with more realistic and objective views.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic therapy follows a psychological interpretation of emotional and mental processes. The treatment draws from ego psychology, object relations, and self-psychology.
This therapy addresses the formation and foundation of psychological processes and aims to improve people’s lives by reducing symptoms. A therapist helps you understand your life and your present-day issues.
Therapists may evaluate patterns developed over time by reviewing:
  • Emotions
  • Thoughts
  • Early-life experiences
  • Beliefs
By knowing your pattern, mechanisms that can help you cope and avoid distress can be adopted.

Interpersonal Therapy

Interpersonal therapy addresses interpersonal issues. It emphasizes how symptoms relate to your relationships. It can also include family and peers. Immediate goals are to improve social adjustment and rapidly reduce mental health symptoms.

Supportive Therapy

Supportive therapy is an approach that helps by increasing personal self-esteem. Therapists may coach you on managing your anxiety and unhelpful thoughts by yourself. Therapists may also incorporate alternative and/or complementary forms of therapy when necessary to use in conjunction with supportive therapy.

Find A Mental Health Counselor at Pacific Beach Health

The first step to finding a mental health counselor is to find someone whose training is in line with the problems you are currently seeking to address, and are in line with your goals. Not all counselors are the same, and you may have to see a few different ones to find one you connect best with. 4
Mental Health Counseling Session

What To Expect During A Mental Health Counseling Session?

Mental health counseling often starts with relationship and rapport building. At your first session you and your counselor will evaluate the problems you want addressed and discuss your reasons for starting counseling. They will listen to you describe your life situation and the reason why you are seeking counseling. They may identify possible triggers, stress levels, and factors contributing to your symptoms. You may determine your desired goals based on what you’ve discussed. Counselors will help their clients to set practical and achievable goals based on their individual situation.

Get Help Now at Pacific Beach Health

Getting help for yourself or someone you love is one of the most beneficial choices you can make about your or someone else’s health and wellbeing. Contact Pacific Beach Health to get in touch with professionally trained mental health professionals. For any queries or information on psychotherapies or other forms of therapies, our extensive team of mental health counselors will be happy to help you get the help you need.

Resources

  1. https://www.apa.org/education-career/guide/subfields/clinical/education-training
  2. https://adaa.org/finding-help/treatment/low-cost-treatment
  3. https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/counselor-vs-therapist-vs-psychologist/
  4. https://psychcentral.com/blog/10-ways-to-find-a-good-therapist#shop-around

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