Mental health refers to mental well-being that enables you to cope with daily life challenges. It affects your thinking, feelings, and actions emotionally, socially, and psychologically. It also helps you determine how you handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy decisions. Mental health can affect people of all ages, from children to teens to adults.
On the other hand, life transitions are the times in life when you undergo certain lifestyle changes. The expected life transitions include a serious accident, developing a severe illness, career changes, and even rites of passage such as reaching adolescence, menopause, or aging.
They say that change is inevitable, but it can sometimes cause stress. Nevertheless, embracing life transitions is good since they’ll always remain constant and unavoidable. Suppose you’re going through life transitions and feel like losing it. It’s advisable to seek assistance from a reputable mental health counselor who’ll walk you through and adjust to the changes. Continue reading this article to learn how mental health counseling can help you manage life transitions.
Mental Health Counseling
According to Olympic Mental Health, many people are mentally challenged, primarily adults. Mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression have increased over the years. No matter how mild or severe your mental health is, it can impact your quality of life. Therefore, seeking help from a mental health counselor or psychotherapist is advisable.
These professionals have qualified psychotherapists who can assess and treat mental health issues, emotional health disorders, and life challenges. The counselors also guide and support you to help identify causes and reduce symptoms, improving your quality of life. Additionally, they can provide strategies to help you easily navigate life’s challenges.
No need to worry if you’re suffering from mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, dementia, personality disorders, substance abuse, eating disorders, and adjustments caused by a significant life change such as marriage, divorce, or a new baby. The counselors are trained and qualified to help you in case of any of the disorders.
Again, if you’re experiencing recurrent and persistent symptoms of mental health issues, it’s advisable to seek help from a psychotherapist. Suppose you’re going through insomnia, struggle to focus, loss of appetite, suicidal ideas, and inability to carry on with daily routines. It’s high time you consider reaching out for professional help.
Are Life Transitions Challenging?
Life transitions can all be disturbing, challenging, and exciting. These changes significantly impact your life, either planned or unplanned. Some adjustments, like in the case of losing a loved one, can be disturbing and depressing. Various reasons can make these adjustments more challenging.
- Unexpected Transitions
A serious accident can occur unexpectedly, resulting in serious injuries. It can become difficult to cope with the new life since you weren’t prepared. It just happened abruptly without any warning. This can lead to depression, one of the major mental health issues.
- Increased Stress
When trying to respond to a life transition, you’re likely to experience different types of stress. You may even experience a positive form of stress called eustress, which can motivate you to take on the challenges and proceed. On the contrary, prolonged stress can negatively impact you mentally, making navigating the transition more difficult.
- Change
Adjusting to a new way of living from what you were used to can be effortful. Take, for instance, having your first-born baby. This may be an exciting change you had been dreaming of, but as you adjust to this change, you must learn things like handling and nursing a newborn baby. Learning new things requires more time, energy, and effort than you can sacrifice.
Life Transition Counselling
Life transition counseling is a program that focuses on helping clients with life changes. The changes can be positive, negative, or even neutral. The counselors use evidence-based treatment methods such as acceptance commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Cognitive behavioral therapy is a talking therapy that helps you manage your problems by helping you see things from a different perspective. It’s commonly used to treat anxiety but can also help treat other mental and physical health issues.
On the other hand, acceptance commitment therapy is an action-oriented approach that encourages you to accept your feelings and thoughts instead of feeling guilty and fighting yourself. It’s an effective treatment if paired with mindfulness-based therapy.
The counselor will help you acquire the coping skills to handle those changes successfully. They’ll also assist you in understanding why you’re going through the changes in your life and give you tools that’ll help you get through daily. Remember that people adjust to changes differently, and you may struggle to overcome something that may not pose any issue to someone else. Therefore, it’s advisable not to compare yourself with others or judge anyone.
Several reasons can push you to seek life transition counseling when faced with a life transition decision. Many people commonly feel stuck and unsure, but you aren’t alone in this struggle. For instance, starting a new business, the demise of a loved one, getting married or divorced, moving to a new state, getting a promotion, or quitting a job can make you struggle. Counseling can make these times more manageable. Any life transition that affects your mental well-being needs to be addressed by a counselor.
If anything bothers you to the extent of causing stress in your life and you’re going through tough times trying to cope, you probably need assistance from a psychotherapist.
Types Of Services To Expect From Life Transition Counseling
There are many services offered in life transition counseling, as discussed below. Still, they generally help you develop insight into your thoughts and behaviors around the situation you’re going through.
- Mindfulness Therapy
Mindfulness therapy is a type of therapy in that the client and the therapist talk and focus on learning and creating more awareness of thoughts, emotions, situations, feelings, and surroundings, reducing automatic responses.
- Walk-Talk Therapy
Walk-talk therapy is a form of psychotherapy involving you and your therapist walking outdoors, discussing the issues at hand, and looking for solutions to the problems. This therapy can treat issues like self-esteem, stress, and anger.
- Journaling
Journaling is writing down your experiences, feelings, or thoughts and keeping them safe. Journaling works best when consistently done as it can help you express your feelings through writing. It can also relieve stress if done through gratitude or emotional processing.
- Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
This therapy can effectively treat trauma and depression. Accelerated resolution therapy uses eye movement to help quickly identify trauma-related symptoms.
Depending on your life transition, you and your counselor determine the frequency of your sessions to assist you in overcoming your issues at your own pace.
How Is Transition Counseling Helpful?
Suppose you’re wondering how life transition counseling can help you mentally. Counseling enables you to discover new ways to cope and adjust to changes beyond your control.
Sometimes, you’re given a chance to open up to someone in a certain environment freely. The main aim is to reduce stress and cope with the changes in your life so you can make positive progress. If you’re struggling and need support but can’t reach out to any counselor, don’t hesitate to look for online counseling, also known as teletherapy. They’ll work together, leaving you feeling better.
Role Of A Counselor
A counselor uses various techniques and strategies to help you adjust to major life transitions. They also emphasize some practices as outlined below.
- Accept Change
Change is part of your life, and you can’t avoid it. The sooner you accept the fact, the sooner you’ll be able to deal with your situation. Denial to accept these changes will only drag you from moving forward.
Remember that once you make a choice, the other options are excavated. Hesitating to make a decision can only trap you in your current situation, preventing positive changes from happening.
- Keep Going
They say that time waits for no man. Even if it doesn’t mean you make a hasty move after experiencing a change, you must keep going. Taking decisive action regardless of difficulty is advisable rather than doing nothing and wishing the problem would disappear. Acting will help you become resilient, aiding in dealing with issues more effectively in your current and future situations.
- Exercise Self-Care
By taking good care of yourself mentally and physically, you’ll be able to handle the emotions that result from the changes you’re experiencing. Regardless of your busy schedule due to life transitions that have led to depression or anxiety, self-care is vital for transition.
- Manage Expectations
Setting reasonable expectations is good since transition doesn’t happen overnight. Unmet expectations can lead to frustration and stress.
Whether a client is trying to adjust to an exciting or sad change, a counselor can play a vital role in helping you navigate that period healthily.
Conclusion
A change can occur anytime in your physical and mental health. Adjusting to change can be challenging, but with the help of a psychotherapist, you can easily navigate. It’s good to note that everybody reacts to life transitions differently. The above article explains how mental health counseling can help you manage life transitions.
