Your First Counseling Appointment

We understand how much courage it takes to realize a need for help and then actually act on that need by setting up an appointment with a professional counselor. We get the anxiety that people experience when making the appointment and then attending the first therapy session. This anxiety experience makes sense, if you think about it. You are setting up an appointment with a total stranger to talk about some of your innermost feelings, thoughts, and experiences. You will likely share personal information that you would rather just keep out of your own thought, let alone confess to a total stranger. ​

This anxiety is normal and there really isn’t any easy way to get over this nervousness, as counseling can just feel like a scary thing to do. It might be helpful to remember that most experiences of self-discovery and healing are stressful in this way and are not easy things to do. Telling secrets, letting the proverbial “cat out of the bag,” and getting real can be very distressing and even be painful. Even though this may be good pain (e.g. like healing a broken bone) it is pain nonetheless and we like to avoid pain.

We at A New Day know that this stress experience might be your experience and we want to encourage you to 

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just let the anxiety happen. Don’t fight it. Accept it as part of the initial stages of the healing process that you are embarking on. We relate to you. We know that without making needed changes in our lives, we are likely to just keep on suffering. We may even suffer more, as our situations can become worse. We don’t desire for you to keep on feeling bad. 

Usually; people, who are at the point of reaching out for help, are experiencing distress that is wreaking havoc on their work or academic performance and personal relationships. In general, most clients at this stage have an idea about what issues need to be addressed and looked at. We desire for you to come to your first appointment and simply tell us about what’s going on. We will ask to hear about how your situation, what has been troubling you, how it got started, how it is impacting your life, and what you have already done to try to address the situation. 

After the first session, people can experience a wide variety of emotions, sometimes all at the same time. We find that feelings tend to come in clusters. For example, after the first session a client might feel comforted, reassured, and relieved on the one hand. On the other they may even feel a different kind of anxiety or sadness, all at the same time. The benefits of this mixed emotional experience is that you will begin to develop clarity of the truth of what has been troubling you and will begin to become more acquainted with yourself and your situation. 

We find that most people who try counseling end up liking it. People grow as they invest themselves in the relational process of therapy by facing some of the harder realities of their situations and then healing, and recovery. Therapy provides an opportunity for people to become more of the person, couple, or family that they aspire to be.

If this sounds like something you would like to experience, we would love to be a part of your journey. 

What's the first step?  Call to set up your first appointment   

​Dr. Logan