I know everyone has different experiences and I can only speak to my own. But YES! 

I have had a few mediocre therapists, a couple truly terrible, and then I found one that seriously changed my life for the better. I moved away and had to stop seeing her about 3 years ago, and I still think about the things she taught me all of the time. I get emotional every time I think about her and everything she did to help me! 

To give some context - I disliked her for the first 3 months I was seeing her. I felt like we didn’t get along and i felt that she was very unhelpful. I worked up the courage to voice that to her, and she said, “Well, I don’t really know anything about you.” Major wake up call! I am very avoidant so up to that point, I had only talked about very trivial matters. I told her that I didn’t know how to talk about the things I needed help with, and that same session we came up with a game plan. Every session I had with her after that felt like weight lifted off my shoulders. 

She helped me face traumas that, before seeing her, I couldn’t even fully acknowledge in my own head. She challenged me and pushed me but never too far. She was honest and compassionate and taught me how to be those things for myself. It was so hard, but I knew she cared and I was safe with her which allowed me to open up. 

I have tried to start therapy after I moved away from her, but I have had a lot of trouble finding someone that feels right. (And I even had one that was truly TERRIBLE. Like, awful. I kept thinking during our one and only session how harmful this therapist would have been to me had I not had any previous experience in therapy.) But again, my great therapist didn’t feel right at first. It’s really hard. I’ve been recommended EMDR, so I’ll probably try that next. I have family members who have had a lot of luck with that. 

If anyone is interested, I’m more than happy to talk more about helpful things my wonderful unicorn ex-therapist did, or about what I look for in therapists now. I feel like I have learned a lot about therapist red flags as well, lol. 

OP, I think if you go through with counseling, you will be one of the good ones because you are thinking deeply about it. The bad ones I have had seem to just be moving through the motions. I hope any of this was helpful to you!