Counseling is any relationship in which one person is helping another person to better understand and solve some problem. Friends and relatives provide a type of counseling, as do clergy, academic advisors, teachers, and many others. Counselors have a broad range of experience in developing "helping relationships" and working with many different situations.

In counseling we look for what we find good in ourselves. The good can be used as a model for the things we would like to change. Counseling is a change process in which people are helped to express themselves in a safe, supportive, collaborative, non-judgmental climate; identify, sort-out, clarify their problem laden stories; identify non-helpful patterns; learn more helpful coping skills; identify and achieve goals that are important to them.