From October 1 to October 13, Forum for Nation Building (FNB) in collaboration with National Youth Council (NYC) organized Training of Trainers (ToT) on psychosocial counseling where I learnt the importance of psychosocial counseling for mental health and I gained some of the firsthand experiences. Psychosocial counseling provides service to an individual, family and group of people with the purpose of improving well-being, alleviating distress and improving coping skills. I believe mental health is equally important as physical health. Without mental well-being, we cant carry out our daily activities smoothly. For a qualitative, prosperous and happy life, it is important that we become mentally and physically fit. From the training, I learnt that a mentally fit person can contribute a lot in economic and social development. Psychosocial counseling helps to bring change in life, thoughts, emotions and behaviors of an individual and helps him or her to do his or her work smoothly. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________During the training, I got opportunity for roleplay on GBV (Gender Based Violence), accidental cases, sexual harassment and got to learn how psychosocial counselors counsel to the victim and assist them to get out of the stressful situations that they are in. I also got experience of JPMR (Jacobson Muscle Relaxation) technique for stress management and I enjoyed DMT (Dance Movement Therapy) which made me feel relax. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________Psychosocial counseling is much needed in the current time of the unprecedented pandemic as many people have lost their jobs, family members, due to which different mental illness has occurred such as depression, anxiety, abuse of drugs and alcohols. Psychosocial counselors can provide support to the mentally ill people whether that be emotional support, support for personality improvement and support for social relationships. And they will be able to overcome the trauma suffered by the people who have lost their family members due to the pandemic. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________As a psychosocial counselor, I will apply the skills and knowledge that I gained during the training. I will make the service seeker know his or her worth and motivate him for self-acceptance, increased self-esteem, improved self-expression through counseling. I will be flexible enough, be a good listener and maintain the confidentiality. I will show empathy towards the client and put myself in his or her position so as to understand the problem. I will also ask open ended questions as I learned in the training and reflect his or her feelings.
