I am not in counselling now, but I have done a course of CBT. I would have done 2 courses of CBT but the therapist decided my life was too much of a mess and told me to come back when I had sorted myself out a bit.
It is very good at making you recognise and focus on the cycles of behaviour we find ourselves rotating through, and gives you the technique to break those cycles.
FE - you feel bad, you comfort eat, you put on weight, you feel bad, you comfort eat, you put on weight, etc etc etc...
The programme teaches you how to recognise when you are on a cycle, and how to pull yourself up and get off it.
There are two major pitfalls, IMO. One is that the courses are for a fixed term. While you are being "supervised" by the counsellor, you are constantly aware of the fact that you should be on guard for signs of the behaviour and working on breaking the habits. However, once you end the course, you are on your own, and real life starts to seep back in, and it is perfectly possible to end up exactly back where you started when you dont have something regularly making you keep the focus.
Unfortunately, thats part and parcel of the therapy. Firstly because resources are not endless, and secondly because at some point you do need to cope on your own.
The other pitfall, is that you start to work on stuff because you want to please the counsellor by making progress. You cant then transfer those skills beyond the course, because you dont have the counsellor seeing you regularly, so that you can get the "reward" of being able to report positive results. You need to be absolutely sure that you are working on the issues you want to address FOR YOU and no-one else. The reward needs to be that you achieve your goal, not for anyone else, but for you. It is not easy, particularly when you are by nature a people pleaser. This was particularly difficult for me, because my self-esteem has always tended to sit in other peoples hands. If they dont like me or what I am doing, I take it way too personally and feel horrendous, worthless, and as though I have failed.
Heh, I even failed at CBT! That was a proper kick in the ovaries, I can tell you!
Anyway, enough of the negatives. You know what you want to seek help with, and you know that you need to get some support to do it. If you take everything I have said in to account and you think it could help you, then it WILL help you.
Also bear in mind, that if you intend to do this through the NHS, the waiting lists can be horrendous. In the first instance, I waited 3 years. Going privately of course can cut the queue to nothing, but most people dont have the sort of funds that allows for private therapy.
I hope this is of some help. Please feel free to ask me anything you want, to the best of my ability I will answer.