Every academic institution today boasts of
in-house counselors for their students. This was not prevalent when we were
studying. If I might make a somewhat general statement, the issues were of less
severity and the one factor I remember is the respect we had for teachers and
parents. Education was considered a noble vocation and the quality of teaching
high.
That is not to say education is poor today,
on the contrary. There is so much more available and all of it more within reaches
than we had. But this is not always commensurate with our mental levels as well
as maturity levels. There is definitely more conflict of choices and less focus
on patience and depth of learning as in giving learning and the practice of it
enough time.
The inevitably resulting emotional and
mental agonizing would most definitely include disorders of the mind, feelings
like depression, anger and frustration, hopelessness etc. We don't know how far
back these had come to stay within us. Starting with traumas related to birth
itself.
So, within the last few years of my
experience with counseling, I have really understood how deeply you need to
understand a person before you can counsel them. How much of their energy you
have to feel closely as if putting yourself in their shoes. It cannot be a
superficial job if results are to be seen. And it is serious business because
you are dealing with the psyche of people. The ideal result is calming and not
aggravating the mind.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
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