“For Healthy Future”

The awareness and development of counselling has still not picked up to a great extent. Locally, still there is great need for creating an awareness. Some of us though have accepted the concept, still are hesitate in approaching a counsellor. This is due to the social stigma of talking to someone outside the home environment. Previously informal counselling was provided by grandparents and other family members. Now with the rise in nuclear family system, space has been created which can be filled in only by a professional well trained individual, who follows the ethical boundaries of "Counselling" (issues such as confidentiality, non-dependency, maintaining autonomy, etc.)

A counsellor is an easily approachable person. Anyone can seek guidance for oneself or for someone else. For example :

• “A teacher may come across the fact that the student’s performance has deteriorated and would like to find out the reason for it”
• “ A parent may find that their son/daughter is quite shy and is bullied by everyone in class or by elder/younger brother/sister (submissive in nature)”
• “ An individual above 12 years realizes that he feels sad , low and demotivated which results in crying most of the time and doesn't know the reason for it”
• “ Grandparents may feel that the father/mother has high expectation from their son/daughter and thus at times hit the child out of frustration and anger”

Once a counsellor is approached, he/she would like to know the history behind the person for better understanding of the situation. If a person is brought up by someone else than certain issues need to be addressed in the beginning such as:- not opening up, not ready to talk, resentment towards talking to a stranger, etc. For example :

• “ A parent brings the child to meet a counsellor with a concern that the siblings don't get along and the elder child at times is aggressive towards the younger one”

In such a case the child will not open up immediately. In such a situation the counsellor might have to use Projective Tests and Inventories to understand what exactly the child feels.

Counselling can also involve parents, siblings, teachers and all those who are related to the individual and to the issue at hand.

Depending on the dynamics of a particular issue at hand, the counsellor might have two to five sessions of approximately 45 minutes to one and half hours each with the individual and/or with the family. The age of the individual plays an important role in deciding the length of the session. On the basis of the acceptance of counselling as a whole by the individual and family, number of sessions will vary.

Once the issue is tackled jointly by individual and the counsellor, the latter terminates the counselling process. At this juncture counsellor makes sure that no dependency on the counsellor is developed.

One can seek counselling for issues such as:

• Low Self-esteem and Self-Confidence
• Suicidal Thoughts
• Stress and Anxiety
• Pressure and High Expectation
• Feeling alone
• Talking to someone who can Listen Objectively
• Depression and feeling Low
• Excessive Anger
• Lack of Motivation
• Relationship Issues
• Stage Fear

Hence we can understand from this that counselling is the most healthiest way of reaching to the bottom of an problem/issue in a most objective manner, where the first priority is given to the understanding and individuality of the person.