I am currently attending counseling at my college and while I appreciate having an unbiased adult to talk to, I don't really know if I am benefitting from it. I didn't have the greatest adolescence and grew up in an extremely unaccepting environment (my mom was practically abusive upon my coming out, my dad is passive aggressive, I was rejected by multiple "friends" when I either came out to them or hinted that I'm gay, and I was lucky enough to make two accepting friends who basically gave me hope). I thought attending counseling would help me resolve some of the negative feelings I have toward my life prior to college, or at least give me the opportunity to cathartically discuss them with someone who wouldn't judge me. I've been to about five sessions and still haven't gotten the opportunity to do this. My counselor seems to focus a lot more time and energy on how my parents seem to have an unhappy marriage, and while it could definitely be seen as an area of concern, I don't really get why he's doing this when I listed LGBT issues as one of my major reasons for seeking counseling. As much as anything I'd like to just discuss exactly what my experience was like and get to express the emotions I feel toward it. Is there any particular way to address this with him? Is what I want not normally considered part of counseling?
Have you asked him at the beginning of a session if you could spend some time talking about your sexuality and coming out issues? I also go to counseling at my university, and that's what I do if there's something I want to speak about that's different than what we've been going over. Just last session, I asked my counselor at the beginning if we could talk about a different issue than normal, and she was more than happy to oblige.
