We’re glad you’ve found The Counseling Center at Bay City here in Green Bay.
Please know that each counseling relationship is unique–it’s like a fingerprint.
That being said, here is basically what you can expect in your early counseling sessions. Maybe this will help you feel a bit more comfortable at your first session.
PLEASE NOTE: If you’d like only one session to talk through some things and get some advice, that’s fine with us.
SESSION 1: The Initial Consultation
It’s normal to feel a bit nervous at your first appointment, but those feelings will likely fade quickly as you begin to talk.
The Initial Consultation initiates the collaborative relationship we will have in the days ahead.
You get to know us, and we get to know you.
You get to see what it will feel like to work together.
This consultation, usually conducted by our Director of Counseling, helps us know which counselor is the best fit for you. It may also help us know if we need to refer you to a medical doctor or to someone else.
At this first session we’ll review a welcome document, sign a Consent (not pictured below but we’d be happy to email a copy to you), and complete a Pre-Counseling Inventory. Afterwards, you’ll take home a Counseling Goals form that will prep you for the next appointment.
Feel free to click on the documents below to review them. You do not need to print these; we’ll provide them for you at the consultation. PLEASE NOTE: We are a mandatory reporting organization and will immediately report cases of abuse to local law-enforcement.
SESSION 2: Goals Review (55 minutes)
In order for Session 2 to be helpful, you should set aside 30 minutes of uninterrupted time to carefully complete the Counseling Goals form you receive at the initial consultation.
Take your time. Think deeply.
Write more words rather than less–that will help you and us.
If you work carelessly on the Goals, that will hinder your progress toward change and may indicate that you’re not ready to do the hard work that lies ahead.
You will bring the completed Counseling Goals to Session 2.
At Session 2 we’ll probably ask you many questions as we walk through the Goals together, and you’ll probably do most of the talking.
This session achieves three objectives:
- IT HELPS you understand and express your problems clearly.
- IT HELPS you look to the future and envision change.
- IT HELPS us thoroughly understand your struggle.
After this session you’ll probably have more clarity and a better understanding of yourself. You may also begin to experience some hope for the future if you don’t have that right now.
Depending on the pain and complexity of your situation, the goals review may take two full sessions (sometimes longer).
Whatever it takes, that’s what we’ll do, because we don’t want to rush this step.
At Session 2, your counseling may include some beginning helpful wisdom and you may be assigned some personalized do-at-home assignments.
SESSION 3: Assessment & Solutions Work Begins (55 minutes)
At this third session and following sessions is where we seek to help you learn more about your own heart. We help you understand the desires and thinking patterns that may have shaped you and taken you to where you are now. And we will work with you to help you change. (NOTE: Walking through trauma, abuse, or grief will take an entirely different path.)
“We help you learn the desires and thinking patterns that may have shaped you…”
This sometimes happens using a Three Desires Self-Assessment because people are helped by a better understanding of themselves and God. Assessing your desires is essential because it is always your desires that cause your conflict. (THINK: If there’s nothing you want, there’s nothing for you to fight for. See?)
The Three Desires Self-Assessment sets us apart from typical counseling, typical therapy, psychology, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT addresses thinking patterns. It’s true that stopping to consider what we think about can be helpful, but those thoughts are often a result of desires, therefore human desires must always be addressed.
Desires are deeper than thoughts. For most people, what they “want” is what generates most of their thoughts. Desires fuel our thought life. Good counseling must address the human “heart”–the very core of the person, where our desires reside.
“Desires are deeper than thoughts.”
A psychologist* (see note below) typically addresses someone’s nature, nurture, thoughts, emotions, life patterns, and behaviors, but effective counseling must go deeper than these.
Effective counseling must address what people think about AND what they want in the deepest part of them.
This third appointment is where the hard work typically begins on your part. It’s hard to change, but as you show grit, determination, and dependence on God, you’ll begin to notice change. No counselor, therapist, or psychologist has an easy-button or a magic bullet.
Good counseling has two important factors.
When you visit a doctor you want two things:
- Proper diagnosis
- Proper treatment
When you visit a counselor, don’t you want these same things?
A counselor should help you recognize and understand the deepest reasons for the problems (diagnosis).
Then the counselor should know how to help you fix the problem (treatment). **
Diagnosis and treatment are a basic part of the counseling process and yet it’s very common for counselors, therapists, and psychologists to entirely fail at these. Roughly 80-90% of the people we counsel state on their Pre-Counseling Inventory that their previous counseling was not helpful.
That may be because the counseling didn’t address the deepest “why” beneath the problems, or because the counselor wasn’t able to provide the proper solutions.
** When people are struggling with such difficulties as depression or PTSD, we always recommend a full medical exam. If the depression is due to a medical or brain-based problem, then it is imperative that medical help is sought. With that being said, in our experience, we usually find that depression problems are tied to relationships, desires, and thinking.
Location
This counseling in Green Bay is located on the campus of Bay City Baptist Church (www.baycity.org). This is also the location of Bay City Christian School (www.baycitychristian.org): 1840 Bond Street, Green Bay, WI 54303. Click the button below to take your first step.
*A psychologist helps a person understand their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and life patterns through structured conversation. They ask questions, listen, and assess what may be contributing to the person’s struggles in order to help the person gain insight and make healthy changes. Psychologists seek to understand and explain the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of their clients.
This can provide more self-awareness, but many psychologists struggle to explain the deepest cause of human behaviors. They can also struggle with knowing and applying the deepest solutions for the problems. While it’s true that our nature and nurture affect us deeply, there’s something deeper. There’s a layer below nature and nurture. When it comes to diagnosis and solutions, counseling must go deeper than nature, nurture, thoughts, emotions, and mere behaviors. We must understand human desires because it is these desires that move us to action.
The Counseling Center at Bay City 