According to the National Mental Health Programme document, about 20 – 30 million Indians are in need of some form of mental health care. Every year, 2,50,000 new cases are reported. But these figures do not include the thousands of others who may be suffering in silence without access to help. With proper care, at least 60% of these mentally ill people can recover completely and at least 80% can avoid chronic illness and disability. A large number of people can be helped by merely listening, providing care and equipping them with life skills to cope with the stressful situations in life. In the next five years, India needs at least 50,000 trained counsellors nation-wide. Right now, we don’t even have 5000 trained counsellors.
Why do people need counselling?
Industrial and technological advancement has resulted in increased material comforts, higher prosperity but a sedentary lifestyle. This progress has led to breakdown of joint families into small, nuclear families. There is less social interaction, less time for others, loneliness, anxiety and stress. Statistics show that the rate of mental disturbances in terms of suicide, alcoholism, drugs, marital breakdown and the like are increasing at an alarming rate. In short there is deterioration of physical and mental health due to a rapidly changing lifestyle.
From amongst those who suffer from psychological disorders, there is a vast majority who have no access to proper help or guidance. Such persons then turn to unscientific sources like godmen, black magic, and other unhealthy practices. These worsen their problems rather than giving them solutions.
Merely listening to them and equipping them with necessary life skills to cope with stressful situations can effectively treat a majority of such people. Professional counselling is just this process of listening and providing these skills. Psychotherapy is the science of application of psychological principles in treatment of various mental illnesses.
What is Counselling?
Counselling is defined as “A set of techniques, skills & attitudes to help people manage their own problems using their own resources”
Counselling is helping a person to understand & improve himself / herself and facilitating the person to look at his / her doubts, face them, work through them & discover his / her own personality & grow.
However counselling is not giving information, giving advice, making suggestions and recommendations, and not influencing a person’s values, attitudes, interests and decisions.
Counselling helps a person in achieving positive mental health, resolve problems, improve personal effectiveness, improve judgemental skills and bring transformation in people.
Areas where Counselling can be provided
- Family
- Premarital
Today we are living in an important and uncertain age, and the institution of marriage is most assuredly in uncertain state. Today if our cars or any automobiles completely fell apart within the early part of their lifetimes as automobiles, drastic steps can be and would be taken. But sadly we have no such organized way of dealing with our social institutions, so people are groping, more or less blindly, to find alternatives to marriage (which is certainly less than 50 percent successful). The problem is not with the institution of marriage. The problem lies with the individuals within that structure and their attitudes towards it.
Compatibility and commitment are crucial to a stable, long-lasting relationship.
It’s always wise to identify and resolve issues in the relationship before marriage. How to get along well in fact depends a lot more on being the right person rather than finding the right person. As divorce rates continue to increase, youngsters today view marriage more critically. In fact, they are anxious to know a lot of things before actually tying the knot. Choosing the right partner, expectations from spouse, personal and career goals are some of the concerns usually faced by would be brides and grooms. Pre-Marital Counseling guides couples on how to avoid getting into unpleasant, unwanted situations. It helps resolve issues in the relationship before marriage
- Marital
Almost every couple faces challenges and conflicts at some point in their marriage. Incompatibility with spouse (and in-laws), misunderstandings, inability to settle differences, career, money and sex life are some of the factors that could adversely affect married life. The practice of marriage counselling provides professional psychological assistance to individuals and married couples with the purpose of modifying interpersonal conflicts resulting from adaptive attitudes and behaviours associated with family life.
- Children
Every person is different in this world and so is every child. Therefore, most parent think that only their child is shy, bully, indifferent etc. Parents find it difficult to understand children. Many a times parents are themselves responsible for their child being shy, introvert, aggressive, bully, indifferent etc and the parents are not even aware of it.
Most childhood problems are related to behavioural symptoms but most parents also tend to worry about achieving milestones. In most of the cases related to children problems, solutions are possible but parents need to be open about the problems and hence the approach can lead to solving the issue at the root cause.
Children counselling can help the parents to prepare the children to face the modern day challenges in career and academics.
- Organisation
As organizations operate in an increasingly globalized, highly competitive environment, it has resulted in Suppressed Emotions & Stress, Less of Team Work and Fear of Punishment among its employees.
The spark of passion, which is vital, is often missing. Work has become more of a ‘have to’ rather than ‘want to’ or ‘would like to.’ Along with the opportunities, come the challenges. As managers and executives bask in economic prosperity, fly all over the world and enjoy a high-end lifestyle, the irony of the situation is not lost on them. Some unpleasant offshoots of globalization include a feeling of emptiness, corporate scandals, corporate downsizing, mid-life soul searching and breakdown of traditional institutions (family). Increasingly, humans crave for meaning in their professional life and expect the workplace to give stability in an otherwise unstable world. Realignment of individual goals with organizational objectives is crucial for improving bottomline performance and productivity. Pushed by these needs, today’s organizations have to be flexible, innovative and adaptive. Counselling ensures a person can effectively maintain a Work-life Balance.
- Society
Everyone encounters problems at some time in their lives. Social counselling services help people of all ages to face a wide range of difficulties and challenges. They aim to give people the advice and support they need to cope with their situations and move forward in a positive way.
Social counselling includes activities like
- Advising and supporting people in such areas like employment, career choice, welfare rights or debt management.
- Social and community care, providing practical care and supporting specific groups like families, older people or people with disabilities
- Personal
Problems can upset us. The idea is to acquire skills that can help you comprehend the situation more accurately and get out of the spot smoothly. Personal counselling is a one-to-one interaction between counsellor and counselee. It’s a handholding session where the counsellor expertly guides the counselee in finding a solution – whether it’s a problem in his personal life, professional life or social life. The counselee approaches the counsellor with a specific problem. And the counsellor applies certain skills to introduce and sustain in the counselee the learning process of self-exploration leading to self-understanding and action, so that the counselee changes his behaviour and eventually solves his problem.
- Health
Health counselling includes guiding the person about family planning concerns and also suggesting means towards a healthy life. Health counsellors also guide people in curing basic ailments, give advice on nutrition, overcoming depression, women health issues etc.
- Stress
Our single-minded pursuit of happiness often leads to disappointment and frustration. As we seek more wealth and material comfort, higher status and greater emotional security, we overwork our body and overstrain our mind. This eventually leads to stress. Stress Counselling endeavours to make people aware of where their happiness lies; it makes people understand their own realistic needs and desires and in the process helps them to manage their stress effectively.
- Anxiety
Anxiety is a natural reaction to stressful situations and is felt by all people at certain points in their lives. Anxiety can manifest itself both physically and psychologically. It is normal and healthy to feel sad or worried about life and its problems & pressures. But when worry overshadows everyday life you may be suffering from anxiety or depression or a mixture of the two. Mostly all people suffer from anxiety at sometime in their lives – even more than those affected by depression. It is the major reason for absence from work.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a particularly effective anxiety treatment. Practitioners address the thought processes that trigger the anxiety and provide relaxation techniques to alleviate symptoms such as panic attacks.
- Depression
Depression is a common condition that affects one in three people at sometime in their life. Counselling is effective in treating mild to moderate depression and is often combined with medication in severe cases. Counselling can help address low self – esteem, or relationship issues or persistent negative thinking, which are also some of the main causes of depression.
- Suicidal
Suicidal thoughts are often the outcome of depression and frustration, which can be compounded by overwhelming stress. Failures in exams, a dissatisfactory career, unstable or broken relationships are some of the reasons for suicide among youngsters. The suicidal person feels locked in a situation that is without hope and without help.
Suicide counselling offers the emotional support to successfully cope with suicidal thoughts. It helps the suicidal person come out of his shell and take a positive, refreshing view of life.
- Vocational
Choice, and not chance, is the key to success in life. And the choice of vocation is one of the very important decisions a person must make for himself. However, research has revealed that this choice is not a spur-of-the-moment decision. It is the outcome of a developmental process that can be traced back to the individual’s early life. Some choices are made by the parents even before the child is born and force upon him/her. Vocational counselling systematically helps in making the right career choice depending on ambition, aptitude, preference and capability.