Assertiveness Counseling Services
Assertiveness is the ability to openly and honestly share your thoughts or express needs.
Assertiveness is often thought of as confrontational or associated with aggression, but it’s quite the contrary! When we are not communicating effectively, you may feel misunderstood. Enhancing your assertiveness can help you become more confident in using your voice, communicating your needs, and connecting with others.
What does it mean to be assertive?
Assertiveness is a healthy way of communicating that encourages you to openly express yourself in a respective manner. The first step toward more effective communication is understanding the difference between different communication types and which type you most commonly use:
- Assertive
- Aggressive
- Passive
- Passive-aggressive
Using a strength-based approach, you will learn strategies for Assertiveness:
- Identifying your communication patterns, what has worked, and what changes are necessary to help you effectively assert yourself.
- Developing a more balanced perspective of yourself and your communication abilities and needs.
- Focusing on internal strengths and resources to make changing and improving communication feel more manageable.
- Empowering you to develop your voice and explore social, educational, and career opportunities and goals.
- Learning how to create meaningful relationships with others to foster a sense of belonging.
What to expect from counseling for Assertiveness:
We create a unique counseling process that is tailored to each person’s strengths and experiences.
Counseling is meant to be a time of self-exploration and growth. Your clinician will tailor treatment to your specific needs based on your goals and what you would like to achieve. Counseling has the potential to be short-term or long-term based on your individual needs.
Sustained progress can be made in as few as 8 weekly sessions, but most people find that they need treatment for a minimum of several months. We encourage you to attend weekly sessions, as this allows you to establish a close working relationship with your clinician and to make progress more quickly. Our hope is for you to reach your goals sooner rather than later so that you can live the life you desire.
Both before and during your first session, you will be asked to provide information about yourself and your reasons for seeking counseling. During the first session, your clinician will briefly review Restorative Counseling’s policies so that you are aware of your rights as a client and can ask any questions you may have. The primary focus of the intake process is to discuss your personal, social, family, and educational history to help give your clinician an overall picture of who you are. Goals for treatment will be discussed and your clinician will provide insight into how they conduct counseling sessions.
In addition to learning about you, the Intake process is a time for you to learn about your clinician. It is important that you feel they are the right fit for your style and needs. We encourage you to ask questions so you can be clear on what to expect from your clinician.
The intake session(s) typically lasts 55-60 minutes.
Working with you, your clinician will help you explore the sources of your difficulties and develop helpful strategies to address your concerns. Your clinician will provide a space for you to identify your strengths and difficulties. You will be empowered to decide what works best for you and what changes you are ready to make.
Ongoing sessions are 45-53 minutes, depending on your insurance plan.
As you move through the counseling process, you and your clinician will discuss your progress. Once it has been decided that you have achieved your goals, you and your clinician will discuss terminating services. These final few sessions will focus on reviewing the progress you have made and how you can continue to maintain these changes moving forward.
Meet our clinician who offers Assertiveness counseling services:
Stephanie Grunewald, PhD
I am dedicated to exploring the layers of shame, guilt, and fear that have prevented you from living the life you desire.
Let’s partner together to find and use your voice.
We will begin by identifying and discussing your current communication skills and beliefs about “assertiveness”. Once we identify your current skills, we will explore how they may be affecting your relationships and different areas of your life. From there, we begin to discover, practice, and expand your use of assertiveness.