What Kind Of Person Makes A Good Counsellor?
It's a good question because whilst we're all so very different, being different is something that we celebrate amongst ourselves!
Speaking from my own perspective, right at the start, I wondered if training to become a Counsellor would change me in any way...
Would I become this kind of enlightened being spreading warmth and kindness wherever I went...
Funny thing is, yes, I did try that on for size to begin with...
Testing the waters of this new identity!
But honestly, this is probably more like an archetype rather than a real person. Being perfect involves some kind of personality suppression, sacrifice of self and ultimately not a way to be your true self out there in the world.
As Counsellors, we're encouraged to be ourselves, to re-discover ourselves, to test our boundaries and to find out who we REALLY are...
It means looking under the hood, getting the tools out, maybe removing some things that make us tick, in order to have a better look. To understand how it works, give it a shine, make it purr and put it back in to make everything run smoother.
And that's the point at which you realise that you're still human, imperfect, quirky... different! Perhaps most importantly, a work in progress! Not a perfect being, not immune from the raw experience of life. What you have is perhaps a greater sense of self, and that actually makes such a big difference!
Understanding becomes the key... alternative points of view, openness, patience, perspective, possibility!
Today, if someone wrongs me, I'm quicker to wonder what's hurting them, rather than responding in haste.
A Counsellor is the kind of person that wants to know themselves more intimately and faces the joys and pains of that process...
A person that unlearns a perfect ideal and becomes more fluid with their acceptance, judgement and understanding...
Someone who has been tested in many ways and found a kind of peace with themselves... a way to "make it work".
Life isn't perfect and Counsellors are not perfect!
We're simply imperfect people striving to be the best that we can in the hopes that it helps others.
With warmth,
James