And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise Philippians 4:8
“What is the best thing that has happened for you this week?” That is a question that I often pose to my clients as we begin a session. So often in counseling, people are expecting that counselors will drill into problems areas- “what went wrong” kind of questions. Yes, we do that, but that is not what gives energy. First we need to look at what fresh energy we can bring to our situation.
I think it is important to talk about “what went right?’ Sometimes, clients have to think a bit before they can come up with a positive thing. They have been accustomed to talking about life’s problems, and I want to flip the script, so to speak, to set a different, more positive tone.
Thinking on the good things that have happened allows us to have gratitude for those things. It also encourages us, actually gives us energy, to be able to work on making things better the next week.
I like a strength-based approach in counseling. We bring to bear our strengths to solve problems. We do not deny that problems exist, we just don’t give them top billing.
Prayer: Lord, help us to always see the positives, even in a difficult and painful situation, Amen
Reflections of a Counselor 