Four-day workshop on “counselling therapies” concluded on Saturday at NEISSR conference hall with junior adjutant, Nagaland Police, Akum Abraham as the chief guest at the valedictory function.
In the programme, Akum exhorted the students to work and strive without diluting the values and the determination for which they decided to pursue the master of social work course.
Akum also promised to work in his own small ways utilizing the skills acquired from the workshop in making his work more people oriented and people friendly.
Dr. Mathew said that guidance system was non-existent in “our” educational institutions and that “there is a misconception on the meaning of guidance and counselling in our educational institutions”.
He elaborated that even basic counselling was provided only to students with behavioural problems and commented that this was more of a punitive measure and not therapy.
Dr. Mathew proposed to the teachers present in the programme that a model of guidance for each student should be developed so as to help the students to develop fully, not only in the intellectual sphere.
In another session, Dr. Joan Chunkapura spoke on the importance and uses of family therapy in counselling. Stressing that everyone comes from dysfunctional family, she taught the participants on how to use various therapies relating to family like psycho-dynamic therapy, communication therapy, structural family therapy and systemic therapy.
Dr. Joan guided the participants into practicing different exercises related to different therapy like pain drain therapy, immune system boost, exercises to reduce anxiety and different forms of meditation.
The workshop saw various queries and doubts being clarified on the concept of counselling and guidance. The organizers and the resource persons expressed hope and trust that the workshop would help in developing a new approach of counselling in the educational institutions.