CHRISTIAN COUNSELLING

When to seek professional counselling... People seek out help for different reasons and at different times in their lives. They seek out counselling to assist them in negotiating the many normal transitions of life or when responding to unanticipated crisis experiences such as sudden deaths, loss of employment or change in marital status.

The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy suggests other signals. Any of these could indicate that counselling may be helpful:

• Continuous feelings of marital and family dissatisfaction
• Loneliness, isolation, moodiness, depression
• Problems with child behaviour, school performance, or social adjustment
• Emotional distress when talking about life's circumstances
• Family violence or intense anger and hostility
• Conflict with aged or disabled family members
• Workaholism and its associated sleeplessness and burnout
• Verbally and emotionally abusive communications
• Unexplained physical injury to self, spouse or children
• Drastic weight fluctuations or irregular eating patterns
• Physical symptoms that may have an emotional component
• Repeated illnesses; non-compliance with prescribed treatments
• Compulsive behaviours: excessive drinking, gambling, shopping etc; abuse of drugs or sexuality