Curmudgeon, Electrical Engineer, Guitar God Wannabe
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Where the mighty arms of Atlas hold the heavens from the Earth
Posts: 3,403
Without giving too much away, I've been in counseling for a very, very long time, and I've been with my current clinician for six years. She's also an addiction specialist who works at a local hospital. I can tell you in no uncertain terms that if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have gotten through the experience with my AXGF. My clinician knew when to be tough on me, and she knew when to back off. She gave me a pretty good education on addiction and things like Borderline Personality Disorder.
That said, you can have the best clinician in the world and it won't matter if you don't do the work.
There are still times when I kick myself for some of the decisions I made when I was at my worst, but those times are becoming few and far between. None of us are perfect. Our goal, to paraphrase my clinician, is not to not make mistakes, but making sure the ones we do make are more sophisticated mistakes.
So be kind to yourself, and be patient. Wellness isn't a final destination. It's more of a journey...