Counseling is an integral part of the total educational enterprise. The mission of the counseling cell at St. Ann’s is:

• To facilitate wise choices and decisions
• To promote adjustment and mental health

The psychological purpose of counseling is to facilitate development. The more a person becomes aware of the structures she has built up through previous development – abilities and talents, social assets and liabilities, emotional strengths and weaknesses. Wishes, values and aspirations – the more she is able to influence her own subsequent development by the choices she makes. The main purposes of counseling are to promote this kind of awareness, to facilitate this kind of choice.

To paraphrase a famous quotation “Some are born counselors; some achieve counseling; and some have counseling thrust upon them.” At St. Ann’s we have all three kinds of counselors. Some counselors are teachers whose natural sympathy for the joys and struggles of students seem to fit them uniquely for this work. Some have undergone a carefully planned series of courses designed to equip them for it. And then there is the professional counselor.

Counseling is inherent in the duties of both by the faculty and class-in-charges. But the presence of so many young people from such diverse backgrounds has made the need for professional counseling very important. To meet this need the Head of the Department of Psychology has a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Counseling and has been the convener of the counseling committee for the past several years. The convener is assisted by three faculty members.

The counseling cell has an agreement with “Roshni” a voluntary organization, to provide additional support services. Today, the counseling cell at St. Ann’s is an indispensable part of the administrative structure.

In our complex and rapidly changing society, every individual must make choices fraught with important consequences for the future. Our young women students face difficult choices among conflicting values. Therefore counseling should not be just for persons who are troubled, anxious, unhappy or unable to cope with the circumstances of their lives. It should also be for students trying to clarify their values and trying to achieve an identity. The counseling cell therefore envisages three roles, which are central to their work:

• Remedial – entails working with individuals or groups, to assist them in remedying problems of one kind or another. The focus is on some “problem” which needs to be “fixed.”

Preventive – in which the counselor seeks “to anticipate, circumvent, and, if possible, forestall difficulties that may arise in the future”. The focus is on making changes in personal and interpersonal environments to minimize occurrence of problems. This involves organizing workshops, seminars, and suicide prevention programmes.

Educative – in which the counselor helps individuals to plan, obtain, and derive maximum benefits from the kinds of experiences, which will enable them to discover and develop their potentialities. The focus is on enhancement and includes skill-training activities.

OBJECTIVES:

• To identify the problem areas or difficulties of individuals, their potentialities and limitations
• To help students develop their potentialities through a greater self understanding to enable them to take full advantage of the environmental resources
• To help mitigate suffering, reach appropriate solutions, take responsible decisions, and enable students to become self-actualized individuals.

FUNCTIONS:

• Identify students who require help
• Conduct counseling sessions
• Refer students to experts for guidance
• Organize lectures/seminars/workshops by experts and professionals
• Administer, score, and interpret psychological tests.

The counseling cell uses an insight approach to counseling. We believe that students who develop insights about their own needs, desires, and capacities in relation to the opportunities afforded by their own particular environment will be empowered to live more effectively.

Counseling must always serve the purpose of the client. Therefore the focus of the talk is always on the client’s issues. The counselor inspires feelings of trust, credibility, and confidence and communicates caring and respect for the persons they are trying to help. The cell thus provides a confidential atmosphere in which students can explore any topic or situation and discuss any concerns or grievances they may have.

Counselors are effective helpers who are able to reach in as well as reach out. Students are helped to work through their problems by developing self-awareness and overcome problems by using new coping strategies. Attempts are made to understand the behavior without imposing value judgments. The counselor makes every effort to be intellectually and affectively available to the client throughout the process. This helps students:

Work constructively toward life/career planning

• Anticipate, plan, and react constructively to developmental issues and transitions
• Integrate thinking, feeling, and behaviour into a congruent expression of the self
• Respond productively to stress and reduce its negative impact on their lives
• Develop effective interpersonal skills so that relationships with peers, family and others can have constructive potential.
• Assess strengths and identify weaknesses so that they may develop self-awareness.
• Develop more choices in their lives, with accompanying skills to make constructive decisions.

As a result of counseling, students should increase their control over present adversity and present and future opportunity and achieve some kind of change that she will regard as satisfying. The counselor is committed to work in the best interest of the students while safeguarding their privacy.

Some of the specific areas in which the counseling skill has assisted students are:

• Learning problems
• Anxiety and tension reduction
• Social adjustment
• Improving interpersonal skills
• Career and values exploration
• Overcoming loneliness and depression
• Help with family problems
• Crisis intervention
• The future activities of the counseling cell include organizing special day/week/month which will include talks and interactive sessions with experts on certain relevant topics such as self-esteem, study habits, premarital counseling etc.

The counseling cell hopes to assist all students of St.Ann’s to become self-sufficient, self-directed, and self-actualized individuals who can make contributions to the larger society.