Starting any therapy can be difficult. Most of us would like to start when it feels like it is a sunny day out in the meadow and psychotherapy will be an easy thing to do. Usually when someone starts therapy it feels more like it is dark, cold and wet. It is just before midnight and the only thing we know is that it feels like it is going to get worse. Our everyday mind has run out of ideas and options. Somehow we are going to have to get some help and we are not sure which way to turn. Getting a recommendation from a friend for a good counselor might help. Some times we go online to see what we can find out about the therapist or just look in the phone book.
Starting with an initial consultation is a good way to start. This gives you some time to see how the therapist works and how it feels to be in their office or online with them. You might want to do this with a few therapists until you find one where it feels right. Usually we want to be fixed right away and that is not the way therapy works. It is patient work building trust in the relationship. It can be challenging sharing the most secret parts of our life. Often we expect the same sort of judgement and shame that we have received from others and that we hold inside ourself. Gradually things will begin to open up. We find that it feels like we have found a safe place. A place where it is OK to be ourself. Sometimes we even begin to wonder why it seemed so difficult to begin therapy and the process feels as natural as breathing.
A good psychotherapist does not tell you what to do or offer insubstantial platitudes. They will journey with you so that you can find the right answer for you. In Jungian psychotherapy and counseling we use the unconscious as our guide. We listen to dreams, creative urges, fantasies and images as markers along the way. It is a mater of two people, therapist and client, sitting with what the unconscious presents and to the degree possible following the direction laid out. We unfold and come into who we are. This is deep and respectful work.