I tried counselling twice at uni with the student services counsellors and I didn’t find it helpful. Now I know more about counselling I think it could have been helpful but I just took an instant dislike to both of them and didn’t go back after my first session with either. They both got straight into it, asking me questions about my upbringing, childhood, family etc. which didn’t seem relevant to me so I switched off. I now understand that they were trying to understand me, how I think, act, react etc. based on the way I’d been ‘moulded’ before being able to do anything helpful. I think if they’d explained that in the first place, I might have responded differently. If you have any option to discuss the counsellor’s approach beforehand and get a general feel for whether they’re someone you want to open up to, it would be a beneficial thing to do.
And for anyone reading who’s thinking about counselling, if you’re in employment it might be worth checking with HR if your company has an employee assistance programme. Lots do but aren’t very good at advertising them to staff. You can usually get short-term private counselling free of charge. They can’t always help, especially for complex matters, but worth checking out to see if it might be an option for you.