Individual Counseling in Carmel, Indiana

Who can benefit from Individual Counseling?

Journey to Joy Counseling provides Individual Counseling in the heart of the Arts and Design District in Carmel, IN.  We love being a part of the downtown Carmel community. It is important to us that we provide the best-individualized care and treatment to those who entrust us with their mental health care and emotional well-being.  We strive to provide professional and top-notch individual counseling in Carmel, IN and to the surrounding suburbs of Indianapolis.

You may be wondering who can benefit from individual counseling.  It’s true that ANYONE can benefit from individual counseling! Individual counseling can help a teenager dealing with bullying and self-esteem issues.  It can help a new mom who is struggling with postpartum depression. Individual therapy can help a forty-year-old man who is struggling with anxiety because of a toxic work environment. It can help a twenty-something-year-old woman who is deciding whether she should stay in a relationship.  It can help a fifty-year-old man struggling with past hurts from his upbringing that are impacting his current relationships. All of this to say, individual counseling is beneficial to anyone, for many different reasons.

We get asked frequently how individual counseling can help.  Our answer is that life can be difficult, but you don’t have to go it alone. Individual counseling can be helpful to address many topics, no matter your age or stage of life.  You’re never too late or too old to work on improving your life or striving for something different. Aren’t you worth it?

One the most important aspects of individual therapy is the therapeutic relationship with your therapist.  We strive to be kind, compassionate, and empathetic people in our work with our clients. You can trust that we will always have your best interest at heart.  It’s important to us that you feel comfortable at Journey to Joy the moment you walk in the door.

What is Individual Counseling?

Individual counseling is offered at Journey to Joy Counseling to address the following topics: Perfectionism, shame, family of origin issues, boundary setting, life stage adjustment and transitions, anxiety, depression, anger management, ADHD, grief and loss, spirituality, infertility/miscarriage, postpartum depression and anxiety, codependency, abandonment, body image and self-esteem issues, addiction and compulsive behaviors, women’s issues, career coaching and development, life coaching, work-life balance, parenthood challenges, break-up and divorce recovery, relationship problems, trauma, Emotional Intelligence development, and stress management.  This is not an all-inclusive list, but rather an idea to show you the variety of topics we enjoy helping clients with.

Even individuals involved in couples, marriage, or premarital counseling can benefit from participating in some individual counseling sessions.  It’s important to process what you individually may be bringing into the relationship, and figure out how to be healthier.

Why start Individual Counseling?

Individual counseling allows individuals to explore their feelings, beliefs, and behaviors, and work through challenging or influential memories.  It helps clients identify aspects of their lives that they would like to change, better understand themselves and others, set personal goals, and work toward desired change.

Individual counseling creates an opportunity for you to receive support and to process the issues that are impacting you.  Individual counseling allows you to explore your beliefs, feelings, and behaviors in a supportive, confidential environment.  It also can help you view your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors through a different lens so that you can challenge yourself and grow.   

When should you pursue Individual Counseling?

Often clients come to individual therapy when they are at a breaking point or in a crisis.  While these situations are appropriate reasons to seek out therapy, it’s important to point out that you don’t have to be at a tipping point to seek out help.  Individual counseling can help when you just need support or want a safe space to process through issues that pop up. It can help you process, developing insight, and gain awareness into your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.  Individual counseling can be helpful even when life seems stable.

How can Individual Counseling help?

You may be wondering how individual counseling works?  The first session is a getting to know you session. During the first session, we will gather information and ask questions about what brought you in.  This is an important first step in figuring out how we can best help you. Some of the questions we may ask are: “What’s been going on lately”, “How have you been feeling?”, “How long has this been going on?” and many, many more questions like this.  Together we will set goals for what therapy will look like moving forward. Oftentimes we will assign homework to help you reflect on what brought you in and what you want to accomplish with individual counseling.  To read more about what to expect during the initial session, click here.

After the first initial session, we will work to help you understand your emotions, needs, desires, and roadblocks.  We will discuss the best steps for moving forward with positive change in your life. Together we will identify problem-solving skills and positive coping mechanisms to implement.  We will examine maladaptive patterns of behavior that are holding you back from reaching your best version of you. It’s important to develop strategies to help you accomplish your goals, and help provide support, guidance, and accountability along the way.  We help work towards changing old patterns of behavior into better, healthier ways of relating to others. We’ll continue to provide consistent support as you continue on your journey to a healthier you.

We believe that individual counseling takes an investment from each person.  Individual counseling requires active participation from you as the client. This means that you may be required to do homework outside of the session.  We may request that you work on things outside of the session time; such as improving communication with others, setting appropriate boundaries, and journaling.  While these things are not required, they will help you exponentially on your journey to being a better you. You truly do get out of counseling what you put in.

Often what you think you are coming to individual therapy for may only be a small part of what is actually going on.  Or maybe you don’t know what is wrong and you are looking for guidance. Your therapist is trained to look for and identify other causes of emotional discomfort and to help bring them into the light for you.  It’s important that we address and pinpoint the origins of any issues that have led you to therapy, as well as any issues your therapist may identify. Together, you and your therapist will be able to address and work through these additional topics.

It’s so rewarding to see clients make huge steps during individual counseling.  This is why we are passionate about what we do! When a client can see things more clearly, set boundaries in a toxic relationship, or find recovery, it brings us joy as well.  We want you to truly be the best version of you that you can be!

Individual therapy is most beneficial when you come consistently.  To stop individual therapy before you are done addressing all topics can be damaging, and sometimes therapy takes a while before it is effective or you start to notice any change. Stick with it, you truly are worth it!.