Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 25
The 2-day workshop on ‘Educational management of children with intellectual disabilities’ jointly organized by SSA Nagaland and National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (NIEIPD), Secundarabad concluded Wednesday here at Don Bosco Higher Secondary School complex.
In the first session, resource persons from NIEPID, Dr. G Sri Krishna, faculty in rehabilitation psychology, spoke on the topic ‘Counselling parents having children with intellectual disabilities (IDs).’
In his introduction to the topic, Dr. Krishna said counselling is a process wherein the counselor helps the client in an interpersonal situation and that counselling involves helping others to understand themselves better and to be more effective in solving their problems.
“In essence, counseling is helping others to help themselves,” he said.
According to Dr. Krishna, a counselor must be very careful on the ‘blocks to counselling’ including reassuring, logical argument, diverting, advising, questioning, moralizing, threatening, ordering, praising and criticizing.
The resource person said the basic aims of counseling included information giving (one-to-one teaching), giving emotional support (lending warmth to helpless), promoting insight (key to self discovery), conflict resolution (both interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts), decision making (weigh pros and cons of the situation to arrive at critical decisions), and problem solving (systematically analyse difficulties, find solutions and act accordingly).
He also said the attributes of an effective counselor are genuineness (genuine concern for helping), personal warmth (warm interpersonal interactions), client respect (positive regard), sensitivity (to human relations), empathy (client’s frame of reference).
He further said the personal and professional qualities of counsellors are very important in facilitating relationship.
Krishna said the three stages of counseling are the Initial Stage (establishing rapport and developing harmonious relationship), Middle Stage (information gathering and allowing client to express freely) and Termination Stage, which consists of recapitulation, future plan of action and follow up.
Later, Dr. Shilpa Manogna, also from NIEPID, spoke on ‘Schemes and benefits for children with ID.’
