Welcome to my blog. This is the place where I am going to share my thoughts about anything counseling related. I have found over the years that most clients come to my office with many labels given to them by different health providers. Yet, many of these clients had never been given any information on what that label means. A major part of the job as a counselor is helping your client to make sense of their inner world. Sometimes using a label helps the client make sense of these experiences. At other times though the client needs concrete information on the disorder they have been labeled with.
Many of the clients that I have visited with over the years did not know that there are concrete symptoms that are needed in order to be diagnosed with a disorder. All of the criteria is located in the current edition of the Diagnostic Manual of Statistical Disorders Edition V or DSMV. There is so much more to making a diagnosis than meeting the criteria for a particular disorder. Many of the disorders have time requirements, meaning that in order to have a particular disorder the symptoms must be present for a certain amount of time. Seems pretty simple at first glance.
Truly though being an excellent diagnostician is more of an art form. This is because multiple disorders have the same symptoms. A good diagnostician will be able to tease out the information needed to make an accurate diagnosis. Many times this process is automatic and happens quickly. Insurance often dictates how long any health provider may see a client. Because much of the session is spent gathering information, not much time is left to educate the client on how the provider came to the conclusion that a certain disorder is present. The client is usually given a prescription and sent out the door.
This is how they end up in my office. The client will come in and say they were recommended for counseling. During the information gathering part of the session the client will share their diagnosis. Unfortunately, most of my clients know how a particular disorder feels, but they don’t have accurate information on their disorder. Any google search provides numerous sites on any particular disorder. This information isn’t usually accurate, and really has no meaning unless you can apply it to your own life.
Through this blog I hope to provide information that I feel like my readers can use to help them better manage and cope with what ever disorder they have. Feel free to drop me a message on any of my social media sites requesting information on any counseling topic.