What’s Your Highest Order Goal For Therapy or Counselling?

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the busyness of worry! I know it, you know it, we all know it... and we still do it!

That's why I like to look for the most simple answers to things and admittedly, we don't always have them to hand... but the question then becomes, what is the next most simple answer to find?

A simple answer is often a stepping stone to getting everything else back on track - not the whole answer, but it's a start, and a start is better than a standstill... because that's where the worry gets us!

So have you ever stopped to think what your highest order goal might be? How quickly does your answer roll off the tongue?

Coming into Therapy or starting Counselling it can feel like the world is bearing down on you and you’ve no idea where to start.

In my experience, this is very common, however after just a few minutes my Clients report feeling much better about opening up and just talking freely. They often share that it feels like they’re going all over the place, trying to say too much, or bombarding me with details and information. But honestly, the opposite is true. The more detail that you share, the clearer the picture becomes. Quite often a simple reflection is enough to consolidate thoughts and feelings into a purposeful direction that feels full of hope.

I like to think of your highest order goal as the most simple, pure essence of all your hopes and dreams distilled into one single purpose or goal... 

Mine you ask? It's happiness!

When something goes south, I can use my highest order goal to realign my thinking towards answering simple questions - those within my power. For example, everything feels like it's going wrong right now... so what do I still have that brings me happiness?

In this way, I gravitate back towards my highest order goal and away from the immediacy of my worries.

This is the kind of headspace that we can cultivate in Counselling together! Working out, defining and refining how to simply "be".

Wondering what Counselling might look like? Have a look at this little piece I wrote about whether Counselling is right for you.

With warmth,

James