Counseling

What is medical counseling?

When you have an illness or disease that disrupts your life, you may develop psychological issues that worsen your symptoms and cause further negative impacts on your wellness. Medical counseling is a form of mental health therapy that helps you better cope with your physical condition and associated mental health concerns.

For example, if you are fighting cancer and having aggressive treatment, you may be in a significant amount of pain or physical distress. Living with this pain day in and day out can make you feel like you’re no longer in control of your life and that you can’t do the things you used to love.

Medical counseling is designed to teach you mechanisms to improve your outlook and maintain a more positive approach to coping with your illness. You can learn techniques to decrease the impact that pain has on your mental and emotional health. Your provider can also work with you to address any symptoms of depression —  like hopelessness — to improve your psychological state.

What are the benefits of medical counseling?

Counseling aims to help you cope with your thoughts and feelings, and change your behaviors to improve your overall well-being. Medical counseling uses different techniques to deal with the stressors and psychological impacts of illness, disease, and other medical conditions. You learn to recognize harmful or negative thoughts and choose to change the way you respond to them.  

What happens during a medical counseling session?

Medical counseling uses talk therapy techniques. You and your provider sit comfortably in an office and talk about your physical and mental health, as well as other things that are going on in your life that may influence your wellness.

Your provider may ask probing questions to help you delve more deeply into your thoughts and feelings to uncover your triggers. They’ll offer suggestions on how you can recognize negative self-talk and thoughts and teach you techniques to change not only your thinking but also your behaviors.

At Center Point Medicine, the team often uses hypnosis to help change the way you think about yourself and your illness. Hypnosis puts you into a state of deep relaxation and concentration, in which you are more open to suggestion. This allows your provider to offer more positive thoughts to your subconscious.

Call or schedule an appointment online to talk to one of the compassionate team members for medical counseling services.