From what people know about counsellors, they may very well appear superhuman. They seem to always be in control, have their life together, and are well balanced emotionally and psychologically. When they are helping people through their problems, counsellors are what we think of as people who are altruistic, good listeners, patient, and caring.

At some point in your life, you might feel like your life is going out of control. Your studies aren’t going well and you are scared you’re a bad mark away from failing. Your career may be look like it has hit a dead-end and you’re never going to advance or make any improvements to your position and salary. Your relationships may be going very badly and you have trouble keeping everyone happy.

A common theme for most people is responsibility. We try to figure out who is at fault for something. If something goes wrong, if we don’t succeed, if our life isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, who is at fault?

You may have seen TV shows or movies where people talk to themselves in the mirror. In those moments, they might be saying something positive to start their day. They might say something along the lines of: “I feel powerful today!” This is called self-talk. Everyone does it, though mostly it is done without much conscious consideration, and often in a negative way.

No matter how often we hear people talk about failure, it’s still incredibly hard not to see failure as something intrinsically bad.

You might often hear that it’s alright to be single, and there is real truth in that. Even though everyone wants love and being in a loving relationship, there are benefits to being single.

When we think of love and romance, we tend to think of flashy shows of affection, and wild emotional highs. Everyone is seeking and looking for it. When you dig a little deeper though, people are really looking for someone who they can share a deeper emotional connection with. People may desire this, but not everyone feels they deserve it.

When you’re young, you’re not typically looking for the meaning of life, or any particular meaning to things you do. You tend to go with the flow. Sure, a few might know what they are doing and why; but for most people, it’s not a big question at that point in life. It’s later when a you’ve gone through a decade or more of work and life experience that this question starts to crop up.