Decision-making counseling is generally much shorter than psycho-therapy and it does not include therapy. It is concerned with helping you structure complex information in ways that are relevant for your decision, in order to help you decide and take action on that specific problem, in line with your goals, your values, your emotions and your identity.
When your decision problem is well defined and clear for you and you have done the work of searching for options, but you still find yourself endlessly oscillating between options, a decision-making counsellor can help you make a decision with confidence and without regret, whether your outcome of the decision is as expected or if hazard has led to an undesired outcome.
At the ALEGE Center for Decision Research Support and Education, we invite people who are undecided on a rather short path, of 2 sessions. The first lasts for 2 hours and the second for 1 hour. The first session is designed for you to communicate your problem, perspective and options to the counselor. They will lead you through the needed structure by asking questions, understanding and empathizing with your situation. At the end of this first session or at the beginning of the next one, the counsellor will provide you with a restructured perspective over your case, such that it aligns with your knowledge, values and emotions and helps you make a clear decision. The clarity moment (or the Evrika!) appears usually quite fast after this and, in this way you will be able to proceed in your endeavour. At this point you might ask for assistance from the counselor in implementing your decision or implement it yourself, independently.
When your decision problem is not very well defined and you experience ambiguity in either defining your goals, understanding the problem or defining your values about it, the number of sessions can be greater than 2. However, the decision-making counsellor can help you significantly decrease the time needed for you to process your specific case, search for information, structure it, compare your options, identify your values and emotions that come into place and act authentically, in line with your desired identity into the process.
The success of a decision-making counselor is achieved when you don’t need the counselor anymore.
