By Nate Bowman
GCU Office of Student Care
#Askingforafriend
I’ve felt this way for as long as I can remember. Can counseling really help me?
Even if you can’t think of a time when you haven’t felt broken, lonely, afraid, misunderstood, burdensome or pained, counseling can still be a valuable and even transformative experience for you.
Allow me to illustrate.
Did you know that an astronaut’s spacesuit is made up of multiple layers, up to 16 in some places? It’s a very high-tech design.
Suppose during the construction of a spacesuit the manufacturer mixes up the order of its layers — all the material required to make the spacesuit is there, but the layers are out of order.
The astronaut who puts on that spacesuit is going to experience some unwanted consequences, such as misregulated temperature or undue exposure to the extreme conditions in outer space. If the astronaut doesn’t do or say anything before their mission, they risk suffering those consequences.
Just like a spacesuit, you and I have a specific design. And when we notice that something is out of place, it helps to talk with someone about it.
Counseling is a place where someone who has spent a lot of time learning about “spacesuits” sits down with you, listens, helps you identify what’s out of place and collaborates with you to reposition the layers of your spacesuit for optimal functioning.
For example, maybe you’ve felt misunderstood since childhood, and ever since then you’ve kept to yourself. Attempts to be understood were fruitless.
Then, after years of keeping to yourself, symptoms of depression set in. You express to your counselor how you feel misunderstood, they empathize with you, you feel their empathy and you leave feeling less alone and more understood than ever before.
Each time that happens, your spacesuit is undergoing transformation. Your confidence in your ability to be understood is growing. Before too long, what was once fruitless is now fruitful. You’re using your voice — something that’s been there all along — to seek understanding, and it’s working.
So if hope is fading because you’ve felt how you feel for as long as you can remember, consider talking with a counselor about it. Transformation may be closer than you think.
