Change takes as long as it takes. And mental health tends to be far more nuanced than physical medicine. After all, there is no lab work to be done to assess your emotions, nor any surgical procedure performed which will remove your emotion-based symptoms.

You might be wondering: What does God think about me going to counseling? Should I just sit in my room alone, reading my bible and praying about it till I can figure it out on my own?  

Did you know that distractions, if used thoughtfully and intentionally, can be therapeutically helpful and can be used to your advantage? It’s true! In fact, scientists confirm the positive utility of deliberate, purposeful distraction. Here are 60 ideas to get you started.

Maybe you’ve never participated in mental health counseling before and you’re unsure about what it will be like. In such situations, when we don’t know what to expect, it’s typically far too easy for our minds to imagine all sort of stories as we’re trying to fill in the blanks.

But counseling needn’t be some mysterious or anxiety provoking thing. With that said, what exactly can you expect at your first counseling appointment?