Value and Impact of Counselling

Reflecting upon the concept, meaning, importance, and impact of the counselling process. Exploring the effects of depression and strategies to address them. Highlighting the role of counselling in promoting a happier and healthier life.

Running head: VALUE AND IMPACT OF COUNSELLING
Value and Impact of Counselling
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Student ID:
Author Note:

1Value and Impact of Counselling
In the following essay I wish to reflect upon the concept, meaning, importance and
impact of the counselling process. Since the people are getting more and more involved in
their work lives and their social life is getting shorter, the need to learn balancing between
two lives is very important. We are faced with newer challenges every day, both at work
places and in personal life. The concepts of social isolation, ill-treatment at workplaces,
domestic violence, and experiences of psycho-social trauma, depression, anxiety and the like
are taking place more and more (Kennedy & Arthur, 2014). Therefore, all these have
heightened the need for Counselling.
Counselling, also known as the ‘talking therapy’, refers to a communication process
that takes place between a therapist or counsellor and the client (Bond, 2015). They have a
confidential conversation where the therapist actively and calmly listens to the client about
the issues or challenges faced by the client or explore the reasons that are causing distress for
the client and then the client is provided with some solutions or advices regarding how these
challenges or issues can be dealt by the same (Burnard, 2013). The therapist may also include
some techniques to understand and explore the problem areas stated by the client and
provides advices accordingly. Since being a student of Psychology and the Secretary of
Student welfare Board, I am often asked for help by other students. This is one of my job to
listen to the problems of the students attentively and come up with solutions or motivate them
to work and study well. However, recently, I came across a student who was in dire need of
help as she was suffering through severe depression. She was involved in an abusive
relationship for some time then and had been a victim of domestic abuse in her childhood.
She could not go up to anybody at that time therefore that remained unattended. Hence, when
she was faced with abuses by her partner, she was completely shattered and was going
through a severe mental breakdown. She was extremely scared and were without any clue

2Value and Impact of Counselling
when she came to me. However, I could actualise and understand her problem and could
guide her properly, and now she is enjoying a better life with more confidence and could get
over her relationship and all the past experiences that she was faced with. Essentially, she
was suffering from acute depression. Therefore, in the following essay, I wish to adhere to
the concept of Depression only and illustrate upon how it can be dealt strategically.
Depression has now become a so common phenomenon that it is often referred to as
‘common cold’ of mental ailment (Al Nima et al., 2013). It can be defined simply as a
negative feeling. Depression can be defined as a feeling of continuous unhappiness and
dejection and a loss of interest at any and all activities. Depression further causes a series of
emotional and physical imbalances and reduces the productivity and ability of a person.
However, untreated clinical depression has adverse effects (Lucas et al., 2014). In this case,
the girl was suffering from acute depression for a very long time which remained unattended.
Therefore, I will start the discussion with the effects of acute depression and then gradually
move towards the ways to address them.
Untreated depression majorly affects the health and thoughts of a person. It alters the
eating and sleeping habit as well. The essential impact of depression is difficulty in sleep.
The people are often seen to be suffering from Insomnia which needs to loss of energy,
extreme tiredness and fatigue and other related outcomes. People are also seen to have been
struggling with taking decisions. They also seen to have loss of concentration in daily regular
works. They have trouble in catching but also feel sleepy throughout the day. Mostly, they
feel sleepy during the daytime and find it difficult to catch a sleep during the night.
Therefore, their daily sleeping habit is jeopardized (Lucas et al., 2014). Further, the victims
are seen to be agitated with everything and experience continuous mood swings. Their

3Value and Impact of Counselling
personal life also often gets hampered due to this. They often remain aloof from their friends
and family. The patients often seen to have complained that they enjoy their personal space
more and do not want to socialise. They also suffer from memory loss, rather they find it
difficult to cognize and retain certain things. They become forgetful about smaller but
essential things like dates, days, and recent incidents, names of individuals or places. They
also seen to have miss out on important information. They also have a sense of self-pity
among them. The clients are often seen with shattered self-confidence and an extremely low
self-esteem. They are seen to believe that they are unable to do anything and always seem to
suffer from hopelessness (Song & Lindquist, 2015). Another significant impact of depression
is having tremors. It is seen, that, if remained unattended for a longer period of time,
depression causes into nervous breakdown on the part of the clients. They are seen having
tremors and getting stress attacks when difficult situations arise. They are always more tensed
and stressed about everything, even with the smaller occurrences. They also seen to have a
loss of appetite and are often seen to indulge in health hazardous food habits. They have
cravings of chocolates and sweets and cheese. The patients also suffer from Bipolar Disorder.
That is, at times they feel extremely negative and distressed and a feeling of hopelessness
surround them. Again, at times they feel extremely energetic and enthusiastic and a feeling of
empowerment encloses them. Such mood swings is extremely normal and present among
people with minor depression as well as clinical depression (Snoek, Bremmer & Hermann,
2015). Other physical effects of depression are headaches, muscle aches and back pains.
Another severe effect of depression is increasing alcohol consumption and smoking habits
amongst the victims. Clients are often seen with alcohol addiction and smoking habits which,
they have confirmed, to start after the traumatic or stressful experiences. Lastly, unattended
depression, after a longer period of time, may result into severe heart attacks or strokes and

4Value and Impact of Counselling
nervous ailments. It also can cause into suicidal activities (Fernandes et al. 2016). There had
been many incidents and examples of the same. However, the girl, who came to me did not
have any suicidal tendencies but she had confirmed that she had been smoking since her
childhood after facing with the domestic abuses and added that she started her alcohol
consumption habits after the first break up with her boyfriend.
My essential advices to her was from my basic understanding of the incident.
However, I had looked into the matter further to help her properly. My first understanding of
the situation was that Depression is not a weakness, it is just an illness like any other and is
perfectly curable like other diseases. One of the ways to address depression is using anti-
depressant pills. However, I do not like giving such ideas to someone because, anti-
depressants also have some negative impacts (Rahman, 2013). However, psychotherapy is
available option and anyone can opt that. Since, I am not a professional, I stuck with some
more basic strategies. The best way to treat depression is seeing a counsellor. The initial steps
are to be done by the client that include going up to a counsellor and explaining and
pinpointing them all the life events (. The next steps are to be fulfilled by the Counsellor
(Chsatin ey al., 2014). To address her problems, I adhered to the two most basic therapies,
that are, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal Therapy (IT) (Compass et
al., 2014). In CBT, I helped her to identify her actual problems and be open up to me.
Further, I helped her with managing the negative thoughts and sense of hopelessness through
continuous motivational talks and encouragement. I also advised her to listen to some
motivational speakers online. This proved to be a little helpful for her as she looked bright
after some days and her decision making power was also improved. Next, I moved to the
process of IT and advised her to get to her childhood friends, whom she had eventually
stopped talking at the onset of the abusive behaviours. I asked her to make some new friends

5Value and Impact of Counselling
as well since her family was not an option for her. I also made her understand that opening up
about herself and being more approachable is essential for her to deal with her situation.
Moreover, she was made understood that more opinions on something can help her to reach
better decisions. These gradually generated into her an effort of adaptation. She had already
broken up wither boyfriend but was being unable to avoid his calls and texts. The
motivational speeches gradually empowered her and within some weeks she stopped taking
his calls. However, curbing her habits of over consumption of alcohol and smoking is still in
the process.
After talking to her and helping her out from the devious situation, I realised that the
current social situation are a perfect setting to induce more stress and depression among the
individuals and counselling is the best way to help them out. A counsellor I more like a friend
whose job is to listen to the problems attentively and further address them properly. More
importantly, a counsellor is a friend who will not judge you in anyway and are always there
to provide the needed attention and care. The counsellors induce into the client a positive
attitude by encouraging them and motivating them. The practice of counselling is more like a
social work with enabling people to have a happier, healthier and normal life.

6Value and Impact of Counselling
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7Value and Impact of Counselling
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