I want to try counselling. What should I look for?

[MeowCatPleaseMeowBack]

I've never had counselling before so I don't know what I should be looking for in a counsellor. I've found literally hundreds of options online and it's so overwhelming. They all offer free introductory calls but I don't know what questions to ask or how to decide who to go for.

I'm very reserved and take a while to warm up to people so I'm not counting on having some instant connection or some instant feeling of "I can talk to this person." I feel like I would need a few sessions at least to figure out if it will work, but that will get very expensive and finances is one of my biggest sources of stress/anxiety right now.

Any tips? What questions should I ask on the calls? How many do you think I should have calls with before picking?

You want anyone you see to be BACP accredited with some experience in the type of thing you might want to talk about eg, eating disorder/ family breakup/ couples counselling/domestic abuse if there's something specific you'd like a counsellor to be informed on.

Then I'd ask for an introductory session so you can get a feel for the counsellor and their approach to things, their manner and how comfortable you feel with them and take it from there. I've had counselling a few times before and there's been a couple of times where I just knew I wouldn't "click" with the counsellor so I had one session and then looked elsewhere until I found someone who I felt more comfortable with. You might want to think about what age/gender/ethnicity you might want your counsellor to be to ensure you feel safe with them.

Ultimately if you're paying for it then it's completely up to you. Most experienced counsellors will talk to you a bit at the start about what you'd like to get from it, what expectations you have of each other and their style of counselling (person centered/CBT etc) so they should know what information they need to give you without you really needing to ask? I think it depends on you really, trust your gut. And don't expect it to feel good or a quick fix, I found that initially I felt a bit worse with counselling because obviously it was bringing some things into focus, but long term I was better for it.

Thanks so much Lavender14. I'm glad counselling helped you.