DO NOT STOP. WHEN YOU GET THERE IT WILL BE SO WORTH IT. I AM SO SERIOUS. I have had a bad counselor and a good counselor and I would go through a hundred bad counselors if that meant I got to have the peace I found with Sam. Jennifer was not good for me. She made me feel like my problems were huge and scary and that I was a hopeless cause. Then I met Sam. She was like a friend with a degree in psychology. I’m very lucky that I met Sam on the second try, I know a lot of people don’t find their fit that soon but it was so worth it. In my sessions with Sam, I tell her things about my life and my childhood and she asks me questions about why I think about things the way I do. She tells me stories about her life too and helps me feel more normal than I had in a long time. You’ve got to keep going until you find your fit. It will be worth all the work. I can’t describe how exactly I knew that Sam and I would be a great fit, but I knew within the first session that she could help me. I’ve talked to a lot of people similarly afflicted and many have expressed that they gave up on counseling because ‘it just didn’t work.’ I’m not an expert, but I don’t think that’s possible. A counselor should be your friend who helps pull you out of the dark. Sam turns on lots of lights in my head for me. She reminds me that what I’m feeling isn’t crazy and that I’m not a bad person for feeling bad some days. If you think counseling doesn’t work for you, maybe counseling with that counselor doesn’t work for you. My vote is try again. And again and again and again until you find someone who can turn on the lights for you. Make sure to give your poor psyche some breaks though, especially if it keeps not working. You know if/when you need to give up better than anyone else but don’t be afraid to try.
The Life of a Mourning Dove 