The Relationship Center approaches counseling as a collaborative process between the client and counselor. Designed to address underlying problems rather than just outward symptoms, the counseling process provides individuals, couples, and families an opportunity to confront the issues in a safe, values-oriented environment. Moving beyond coping and management skills, clients work to resolve the challenges they are faced with providing a greater sense of freedom, strength, and wisdom to move towards the future. In this phase, the counselor listens, gathers information, and provides tools and guidance to the client, perhaps for the first time in his or her life. There are many therapeutic approaches that various counselors may use, unique to the counselor and client, but regardless of which type of therapy applied, the goal remains the same: to guide the client towards a better path, with the necessary tools to overcome...
Discovery is a powerful learning mechanism, and is one that we hold as a principle in our philosophy of counseling. We all know what "learning the hard way" means - it is when people discover on their own something negative or harmful that causes change. Well, equally, we believe that discovery can also be "learning the good way", and indeed, in our view, it is one of the most effective ways. It is important to note that discovery does not equate with experience, but with illumination. When illumination takes place, the person truly understands. It is the moment when an individual can see clearly, perhaps for the very first time, the whole truth of an issue at hand. This is what we mean by discovery.
It is our belief that for individuals to be invested in their own lives and future, the counseling process must be a process of personal discovery, or illumination, rather than simply providing directions and giving advice. When working with a counselor, clients can expect to discover their own unique path and personal outcome from their situation. This process leaves the client with the experience that he or she, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, is responsible for the positive changes in their life. As a result, each person completely owns their own process and the resulting positive changes and improvements. We find this creates lasting change as the client is not dependent on counseling for their future success.
At The Relationship Center, we focus on achieving results with our clients. Compared to developing coping and management skills for symptoms and problems, we focus on resolving the underlying issues so you, the client, have lasting change. Some approaches may simply look at symptoms and attempt to return the individual to a "functional" level. For example, someone struggling at work because of fear of failure may be taught how to practically function at his or her job, but the underlying issue causing that fear, which was developed years earlier, may go untreated, hence the basic problem remains. It is important to treat the causes, rather than just the symptoms. This is why discovery is so important because once illumination and understanding takes place, it directly leads to practical means to obtain lasting results. Our roles as counselors are to provide those practical tools so that meaningful results can take place. By taking this approach, the symptoms dissolve on their own once the underlying issues are addressed and a real plan is in place. The outcome is to leave the individual with a new found sense of hope and optimism as issues no longer block daily living.
Our goal at The Relationship Center is to provide superior counseling that leaves you able to move forward with life and the dreams for your future, having no further reliance on counseling. One of our values is that we see life as a journey, with this in mind, we hold true to the concept of moving forward, beyond the pains of yesterday. While it may be good for a therapist's pocketbook to have a life-long client, it sure doesn't help the client! We as counselors are people too, and for us to feel purpose in our work and life, we cannot be professionals who maintain perpetual clients, but instead devote ourselves to returning people to full health. Our focus is on you and your loved ones, and restoring all back to a fulfilling life, having the issues resolved. In the end, it is our hope that you will be able to live a life free from your issues, and one that is no longer dependent on counseling. The length of the counseling relationship needed for each individual is unique, and some individuals may need much more time than others, but the goal is the same: freedom to be alive, and to live, moving forward into a better future. By having this model, values-based counseling at The Relationship Center offers a process to the client that leads to individual solutions that are truly lasting changes, and ultimately bringing new hope for a better life.
