One of Youthline adult clients shares their experience of their ‘counselling journey’ with their counsellor at Youthline.
Research shows that one of the most important aspects of counselling is the relationship you form with your counsellor. There are some people who will work with several counsellors before they find the one that works. Youthline trust our clients will know when they get talking with their counsellor whether they are someone that they can work with to form a strong relationship. Youthline offers the choice to change as we have a large number of counsellors volunteering at Youthline.
“At first I was apprehensive about counselling. I had mixed experiences before going to Youthline and indeed one of my first counsellors at Youthline told me she was overwhelmed by what I had confided in my first session with her. The people at Youthline were incredibly kind and helpful and changed me to a new counsellor straight away. It took me a while to realise that you do need to click with your counsellor and finally I met the person I felt I could connect with. My counselling sessions happened as COVID was first starting out but it didn’t really impact my sessions as my counsellor really worked hard to make them as impactful and helpful as possible considering we were having to Zoom. I can recognise a real difference between my mental health in my first sessions compared to when I had finished. My counsellor was patient, kind and calm. She understood my personality quirks and conversed with me in a way that really sunk in. For me my mental health is like a marathon, I always treated it like a sprint but she taught me to slow down, assess my feelings and situation and really think about what was happening“.
Mathilda – 26