Need of Counselling

As mentioned earlier both the normal and
psychologically disturbed persons can benefit from
counselling. Counselling is considered beneficial to the
persons with stress-related mood disturbances and
adjustment problems. These disturbances and
adjustment problems are sometimes expressed and
shared as concerns by the affected individual. The need
for counselling may be understood when someone raises
concerns like: ‘I am feeling lonely.’ ‘I have lost my job
and feel hopeless.’ ‘I find it difficult to make up my mind
about my career.’ “I fell tensed all the time.’ ‘I wish I
were better at controlling my anger’. ‘I find that my life
is becoming meaningless.’ In these and such other cases,
the person is expressing the need for help from others.
Such help is extended by providing counselling services.
People with the following main criteria indicate the need
for counselling:
i. The symptoms are related to stress, but are out of
proportion to the stress in duration or severity. For
instance, a person disturbed after the sudden death
of a loved one, is unable to adjust after several weeks.
When the degree of emotional disturbance in such
a case is so great that the individual is unable to
would probably benefit from counselling.
ii. The symptoms interfere with psychological, cognitive,
biological, social, personal, and/or occupational
functioning. Sometimes physical symptoms may also
be present. Interference with psychological
functioning means that depression, anxiety, fear,
anger or other dysfunctional emotional states are
present. Interference with cognitive functioning
means that attention and concentration are poor.
Mental slowness and mind blocks may become
common. Interference with biological functioning
means that the person will have disturbance of sleep,
appetite and sexual functioning. Interference with
social functioning means that there is impairment
in the ability and desire to interact normally in social
situations. Interference with occupational
functioning means decreased work efficiency,
making errors at work, avoidance of responsibilities,
and/or absenteeism. Interference with personal
functioning means decreased involvement in the
usual recreational and leisure time activities. This
may be associated with physical symptoms like
fatigue, lethargy, aches and psychosomatic
problems.