Counselling: An unbiased approach to better living

by Archana Kapoor Nagpal
(Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India)

With fast paced innovations and transformations in the world our lives have become extremely demanding. We are trying to match our pace to meet the requirements both in real and virtual worlds. As we say, more people, more thoughts, more ideas, more targets and more complexities. Gone are the days when people had time to sit and pat others on the back for accomplishing something praiseworthy. Lives are now sometimes limited to social networking sites for staying in touch with loved ones. The feel and essence of physical presence is missing, and that can make one feel emotionally and personally isolated.

What one needs is a support structure or a process to help in finding solutions for problems, whether that help is professional or personal in nature.

Counselling is an unbiased process to provide emotional support without judging a person. It requires insight to personality traits, and handling problems with patience, understanding and affection. Most counselling works around the concept of empathizing with a persons situation and providing feedback and questions relating to the issues that need attention (ex. marriage, job, health or family crisis).

There are relevant agencies that deal with counseling procedures. They work with the help of trained specialists to handle cases to empower and encourage clients with their best practices. The idea is to enhance the quality of life and help them proceed to better their living. Outcomes often include greater believe in ones own strengths, and understanding with how to work with their weaknesses.

Counselling can work for people from any area of the globe, irrespective of their age, sex or employment. Counselling centers are equipped with trained therapists and specialists.

There are any number of issues that might bring someone to a counselling agency. To name a few: health, unhappy marriage, sexual abuse, domestic violence, family crisis, children, infertility, low self-esteem, loss of job. It is strange but geographic factors can sometimes be found to impact the type of problems people suffer. For instance, the cases of counselling around domestic violence might be more in eastern countries than the western part of the world.

Loneliness due to family disintegration can add to anxiety and stress leading to a situation that demands a counsellor.

Parental counselling is more to help parents better their understanding of bringing up their child the right way, not their way. All parents experience challenges, and the fact remains, there are no 'perfect' parents or 'perfect' children.

Addictions are another reason that people seek the attention of counselling agencies.

Counsellors can help with anger management, to enhance quality of life both professionally and personally. Giving feedback to anyone, friends or colleagues, will benefit when anger is controlled. Counsellors help in managing a persons control over anger in even the most unforeseen circumstances.

Depending on the factors involved in an person's crisis, the counselling agencies and specialist can recommend the most appropriate kind of session. The demand of the situation decides the type of session. Counsellors seek information with the help of counsellor forms that are designed with specific techniques and tools. The basic concept is to seek information about the client irrespective of the mode of counselling.

Individual counselling is designed like a one-o-one session between the specialist and the client to deal with issues that have more individualistic traits involved like low self-esteem, job, health, sexual abuse and maybe more. The idea is to maintain the confidentiality of the client and to understand more about his or her past as well as current situation of crisis, through simple structured questions. Sessions are planned by the counsellor based on experience and client response in terms of motivation and commitment.

But what about issues that requires a couple to be counselled? The answer is simple and straight – couple counselling. The two people will then meet with the counsellor jointly. This will often occur face to face, although can be arranged virtually if required. The main thing is to build a relationship of understanding in solving the problem. Sometimes, preparing to be married can also involve a situation where a couple can benefit from meetings with a counsellor. A few reasons that a couple might seek counselling sessions include: commitment fears, progressing to parenthood, family interference, emotional dependency, or lack of sexual intimacy. Facilitating couples to grow together through a healthy married life is the goal of a marriage counsellor.

There are different types of counselling sessions, and it is no longer limited to a one-to-one session in a room. The virtual world has added considerable growth to our lives in many different areas. It has brought the concept of virtual counselling or online therapy to our doorsteps. This can be an excellent answer if you are in crisis and cannot reach your physician or mental health worker. Every aspect of counselling remains the same other than the factor of physical presence. This gives leverage to a client to explore different counselling agencies and counsellors globally. A larger platform of service providers to choose from allows the option to see insight from experts from anywhere around the world. All one needs is an internet connection, a webcam and software to support e-counselling or online counselling. Skype is a good option to have virtual conferencing with your counsellors. It is beneficial for those who stay in areas away from experienced, professional counsellors or for those who travel a lot. Certainly its useful for those who have health issues and are unable to commute. If you lack confidence of social interaction, then you might also prefer this mode of counselling for yourself.

No matter what mode you choose, what matters the most is to restore the belief of 'you' in yourself. Counsellors are trained to handle their work with empathy, always with the goal being to better the client's life.