Most people come to counselling because some part of their life is really hurting and they want the hurting to stop.  In many of these situations counselling will help and either the emotional pain goes away, or it is greatly reduced.  But in some cases, people come to counselling and, as their story unfolds, they realize things are even worse than they thought.  This discovery often leaves the person feeling worse after the session, than when they came in.  It may be tempting to think counselling made them feel worse.  What happened is counselling opened their eyes to some painful realities they had previously not seen.  And, as much as counsellors don't want to make people feel worse, sometimes its better to be facing the reality of a bad situation, than to continue  feeling fine because you just don't know whats really going on.  Sometimes counselling can be like surgery.  Before you can feel better, you will feel much worse.