We consider most forms of help to be self-help. Books and other recorded media provide what we traditionally consider self-help. Counseling and psychotherapy are synonymous words for interactive self-help in which a client and a trained professional target areas for change or development and mutually work toward the client's personal goals. Recorded media provide information a person can assimilate and attempt to integrate into daily living. Reading a book such as What Color is Your Parachute or Workbook for Anxiety and Phobia provide exercises targeted toward decision-making or behavior change. The more active user of these materials will generally receive the greater benefit. Counseling provides the most interactive, real-time self-help available. The Internet provides a set of resources that may bridge the gap between the more passive forms of recorded media and the face-to-face intense work in counseling. Web-based resources such as you find on this site can supplement and extend counseling effectiveness by encouraging close-to-real-time recording of thoughts, feelings, events and interactions for personal reflection (feedback to self) or in-between-session feedback from a professional counselor.

The purpose of self-help, whether taken from recorded media, a mutual-help group such as Alcoholics Anonymous, face-to-face counseling, or psychoeducational feedback from a website is to change. Specifically, any long-lasting change comes from changing the way our brain functions in real-time, every day experience. As a user of self-help, my goal may be to reduce stress, control my anger responses, reduce anxiety, depression or improve my relationship and my parenting with my rebellious children. Our goal in working together is to create enough cues, feedback and reinforcement to support your desired changes.

This section is for use by anybody. You don't need to be a client of Trinity Counseling Center, Inc. to use it. It is strictly provided for educational purposes and is not counseling or psychotherapy.

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