Counselling Interventions

Counselling is a valuable tool in treating all Types of mental health disorders and substance addictions. One of the best things about using counselling as a therapy modality is that many different methods and variations can be employed to help patients, and they can be tailored to each patient’s treatment goals. These types of tools are called counselling interventions. Some common counselling interventions and approaches can reap benefits and produce a lasting and profound change for patients.

Behavioural Interventions

“Behavioral counseling interventions in clinical care are those activities delivered by primary care  and related health care staff to assist patients in adopting, changing or maintaning behaviors proven to affect health outcomes and health status.”

The goal of these interventions is to strengthen positive behaviours while at the same time reducing the frequency and intensity of behaviours that are not beneficial. Patients should look at just a couple of behaviours at once to make it easier to take action and not feel overwhelmed by trying to change too many habits. Behavioural intervention strategies can include positive visualization, where a patient imagines a situation and the desired behaviour or learning communications skills to improve certain behaviours. Behaviour interventions can be appropriate for patients of all ages with a wide variety of problematic issues; they are also often used in schools and other settings to help children focus, perform better in class, get along with others on the playground, and address certain disorders.

Affective Interventions

Unlike behavioural interventions that address a patient’s actions, these kinds of interventions focus on a patient’s feelings. With effective interventions, patients who grapple with overly strong feelings can identify and express those emotions properly and learn how to manage them.

Patients can also help parse and identify emotions by making a chart or graph to see which are most prevalent. These interventions can help patients see how different emotions may be interrelated, allowing patients to take responsibility for their emotions and communicate them properly. Patients can also better understand how certain situations or relationships trigger particular emotions and learn how to use coping techniques to navigate those situations better. Because patients are encouraged to practice self-acceptance, therapists model acceptance of the patients and their emotions, free of judgment. As patients better understand their emotions and how to handle them, they gain clarity on their sense of self and can move forward in life.

These thoughts govern every aspect of a patient’s life– thoughts, feelings and actions. These thoughts govern every aspect of a patient’s life—thoughts, feelings and actions.

The most common form of cognitive intervention is found in cognitive behavioural therapy, also called CBT. In this therapeutic model, the counsellor works with patients to deconstruct harmful thought patterns and break the negative connections in their minds regarding certain situations and issues. This can involve the patient taking an in-depth look at certain emotions, behaviours, and thoughts and getting at their root cause, as well as identifying how they create a domino effect and govern how a person lives their life.…