Professional Counselling
Department of Counselling offers individual, group and family counselling in the campus. Department is equipped with 4 professionally qualified counsellors who are easily approachable to the students and help them to deal with their daily life challenges and develop an insight for making right choices and decisions in their lives. In the department, each counsellor allows an individual to have an opportunity to improve upon their understanding of themselves, including their pattern of thoughts, behaviour, feelings and the ways in which these may have been problematic in their lives. It also helps to examine how to tap into existing resources or develop new ones that enhance their academic and personal lives.
MISSION
To create the optimal therapeutic environment with the use of appropriate counselling techniques for the purpose of:
- Promoting students’ holistic development
- Enabling the students to utilise the opportunities provided at NHCE.
- Helping students from various social, economic, lingual backgrounds adapt to the requirements of college life in a cosmopolitan city
- Ascertaining that the students make continuous progress on the path of self-awareness and discover new ways to develop their potential and talents to the fullest.
VISION
To guide the students deal with all the life challenges and encourage them to reach maximum academic achievement and optimal personal growth so that in due course of time, they become valuable assets to the society.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Department of Counselling is grounded on the simple philosophy of respect and honour; respecting individuality and honouring diversity. As counsellors, we believe that the resolution to their concerns emerges from within them. We are dedicated in creating a safe space to help them gain insight to deal with their issues in order to bring about positive growth.
NHCE STUDENT COUNSELLING CENTRE
Department of Counselling is where professional, confidential counselling service is available to all registered students of NHCE/NHCM.
Counselling provides the opportunity for any student to discuss in private any concerns which may be impacting their academic performance or general health and well-being.
During counselling process, student’s strengths are highlighted and maximized with a focus on their self-growth, self-awareness and self-acceptance.
Counselling provides a chance to gain a new perspective on the problem and to become more accepting of oneself in the process
Counselling is generally offered on a one to one basis, is short-term in nature, is strictly confidential and is provided free of charge.
Self-walk-in to the department is welcomed and encouraged.
Threaputic Alliance
It is a professional relationship between a counsellor and a counselee that provides a framework for the exploration of emotions, behaviours and thinking pattern and the facilitation of healthy changes.
A personal space of mutual trust is created where the client can share his or her concerns, in an accepting, non-judgmental, confidential environment. In such a space, the client feels genuinely listened to and thus is empowered to find solutions by getting in touch with his/her internal and external resources. Advice giving is not a part of counselling because solutions imposed from outside usually do not work as every person is unique and is a product of his/her unique circumstances.
WHY IS COUNSELLING REQUIRED IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS?
Life, these days, is becoming increasingly fast paced and complex. The social structure is changing rapidly. As more and more families are becoming nuclear with both parents working, the growing child/adolescent finds him/herself increasingly isolated. With rapid proliferation of technology, addictions like social media, gaming, and texting are becoming increasingly common. In these conditions, many students lack a sense of direction or purpose which makes them prone to distraction and leads them to indulge in undesirable activities. They are deflected from the primary goal of acquiring academic excellence and skills essential for their upcoming professional life. Transitioning from school to the college environment necessitates adjustment on many counts (for example: adjusting to the fast paced semester system, the hostel environment, homesickness, lack of language proficiency etc.). The student also needs to adapt to the pressures of the academic workload hence techniques like time management, stress management are of significant help in this regard. Many students also face personal/ family related problems which impact motivation level. All these factors indicate the need and importance of college counselling services. Adequate counselling facility is the answer to help and guide the youth to channel their strength to achieve academic, personal and career development.
WHO IS A COUNSELLOR?
Counselling psychologists is a mental health professional who examines a person’s experience and explore underlying issues.
They treat a wide range of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, eating disorders, psychosis, personality disorder, negative life events, bereavement, domestic violence, sexual, emotional and physical abuse, trauma and relationship issues. Counsellors are trained to be sensitive to and respectful of individual differences, including the specific concerns with regard to gender, race/ethnicity, culture, religion, age, and socio-economic status.
WHEN TO APPROACH A COUNSELLOR?
There are many reasons why someone might choose to access counselling services. Some of them are:
- Childhood Trauma
- Body image
- Phobia
- Eating disorders
- Self-esteem
- Coming out
- Family conflict
- Interpersonal issues
- Emotional or social concerns
- Apathy
- Exam anxiety
BRIEF THERAPY OR SHORT TERM THERAPY
Brief therapy or short term therapy is a type of counselling that is time limited and present oriented. The session duration ranges from one session to twelve sessions. This mode of therapy makes psychotherapy available to more people who are unable to access it for money or time constraints.
The key elements include:
- Focus on the client’s presenting symptoms and current life circumstances, and it emphasizes the strengths and resources of the client.
- The therapist and client will work collaboratively to set goals and find solutions together to overcome the issue. The client is given in between session homework assignment.
- Brief therapies range from very short-term strategic and solution-focused modalities to cognitive-behavioral and cognitive-restructuring models and more extended short-term dynamic approaches.
- It is effective in helping people deal with situational problems and less severe anxiety and stress concerns but may be limited in sustaining change among clients with chronic and severe disorders.
- Brief therapy is not recommended for those who are experiencing severe mental health concerns like bipolar or manic depressive illness, schizophrenia. Severe mental health disorders require long term therapy and psychiatric treatment.
FACTORS LEADING TO DROPOUTS IN ENGINEERING COURSES
| Challenges | Possible solutions | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Students are told “Engineering is the ticket to a good life. Failure will reduce the chances of getting a good placement.” This frightens students and their goal becomes rote learning and passing rather than trying to understand concepts which take more time and effort. They do not experience the joy of learning. | Emphasis on learning. Explaining to students that in a professional course knowledge of subject is very important as they will need it in their working life. |
| 2 | Our education system encourages exam oriented rote learning. Students coming from some of the colleges lose the habit of studying from the text books, understanding concepts. | Emphasis on learning. Explaining to students that in a professional course knowledge of subject is very important as they will need it in their working life. |
| 3 | For students coming from different states who have studied till PU in their vernacular medium, communicating in English becomes a problem, especially in the first year. Apart from the difficulty in academics (they do not know the English terms for many things) they also have difficulty in communicating with classmates, forming friendships. They feel inferior, less confident and left out. It is very important for adolescents to belong to peer groups and feel accepted. | Conducting English classes to bring up proficiency in the language. Creating awareness that English is a language which can be easily learnt over some time. English is not superior or inferior to Indian languages. |
| 4 | Some students, especially in first year, find it difficult to adjust to seven hours of classes, particularly in post lunch hours. One core subject after another makes it difficult for them to concentrate and they feel drowsy. | Conducting group activities in classroom based on critical thinking to make learning easier and generate interest |
| 5 | Many times students lose interest because they cannot connect the subject matter to real life situations. The study becomes “pointless”. | Connecting subject matter to real life applications in class. |
| 6 | Students in first year do not know much about their chosen branch. They cannot appreciate the fact that whatever they are learning in first year will be put to use in later semesters. | First year students can assist senior students in projects. Senior students can conduct seminars on their projects for first year students |
