 Okay, good morning. Thank you for being here at class. We are at week 10 of our course in Christine counselling. Thank you for all those who joined in on the live stream as well as those who have later been seeing this video. Thank you for your diligence. Thank you for keeping in touch with the course. We have just a couple more of weeks to go by the end of April. We will be done with this course or we're moving into the latter half of the course. So up until now, if you have been following closely with the entire course, we initially looked at, we started looking at different kinds of things about counselling. We started with an introduction. We looked at the perspective of the personality of man or how do we understand human needs with the biblical perspective. Then we started straight away into what actually happens in counselling and some of the things that we've seen are important is the counselling relationship that is a relationship with the counsellor as well as the counselling. And within this relationship, if there is a process that happens, we studied three processes that is exploration, understanding and getting into action. And through these processes, we also looked at certain skills that the counsellor needs to have in order to go on with counselling. So the chart over here, in short, depicts, it gives you a good idea. It brings about the various stages that both the counsellor and the counselling passes, pass through during the counselling process. So you would see that this is based a lot on the attitudes of the counsellor as well as the skills of the counsellor, which helps in the learning process of the counselling, which is actually the stages of the counselling relationship. So the attitudes that are adopted by the counsellor, as we have seen is empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence or genuineness. Now these are needed to create and sustain that atmosphere of trust, atmosphere of respect that will in turn encourage the person to be open to the counsellor as well as to come to a place of personalizing whatever the problems or the issues are and moving them into a place of action. So during the initial stage, the counsellor attends to the counselling and that directly affects the involvement of the counselling in the counselling process. Now once you see that the counselling is involved, that's when we move into the next stage, which is the exploration, but for that to happen, the skills of responding of the counsellor is what stimulates that place of self-exploration in the counselling. Now this deepens the self-exploration in the counselling and then it enables the counselling process to pass on to the next stage, which is the personalizing stage. The personalizing stage is where the counselling takes onus or takes responsibility for their contribution in their concern or in their problem. So the personalizing skills that the counsellor stimulates brings about an understanding of one of themselves of the counselling in the process of the counselling in the stages of the counselling. Now this understanding makes it possible for the process to move into the next stage, which is the stage of initiative where the counsellor is bringing them to a place of readiness or a place of preparedness, where the counselling takes a relevant action and that gets formulated into solving the counselling's problem. So when you look at this entire chart, this is in a nutshell what you're looking at. It is the counselling model, you're looking at the skills that the counsellor requires and what is the counselling's learning process. So once the action takes place, then there is a mechanism of feedback as well as evaluation. Now sometimes this can keep going over and over again depending on the issues that the counselling wants to work in or the goals or the objectives that the counselling may have. This process may repeatedly go a couple of times. So this is still where we completed and this part is a lot, the nuts and bolts of counselling. It was just packaged in really fast terms. There are years and years of study that people actually just take in learning to be more skilled and to work through these processes. But as for our course and as for those of us who are here, it is to give you a broader idea and you take this as an appetizer and go into really delve more if you do feel you would like to learn and understand more. And there are multiple courses that's available outside in different organisations that you could actually do that. So we complete this part of our lesson and we move into the next part which is what we're going to be focusing on different issues in counselling. What are some of the issues that may come up that we need to be aware of? And we will look at a few in the upcoming classes. We may not be able to share every aspect of issues that come up in counselling rooms or in pastoral care but I've just taken up some broad areas so that we have a good understanding of it. So for the topic for today, the particular issues in counselling that we're going to be looking at for today's class is mental health as well as a marriage and family related issue. So I may just touch and go on a lot of this. It's not in depth. It's just to give you like a taste of what it is and what we need to be aware of. We need to be not be ignorant that there are issues like this that happen and we need to deal with some of the problems up front. So it's to give you a real taste into these concerns. Now even as I'm going through this class, I wanted to make it a little bit interactive because otherwise it's just one person talking and so I have a couple of slides where I've spoken about whether some of these issues that you know about in mental health is whether it's a myth or whether it's a fact. And I'm going to be putting up some of this and I'd like it would be nice if you all could just unmute and respond so that we make the class a little bit more interactive and brings about some learning. So let's start with first. So this is just a little bit of reflection that I want you to recall. The first thing that I'd like you to do is think about one positive emotion or feeling that you experienced. So any time in the past think about one situation. So the first and the second question I'm clubbing together. What happened in a certain situation that made you have this positive emotion or a feeling that you experienced? So this is just a personal reflection. It can be any situation that you have faced that you have seen that has given you a very positive emotion or feeling. Would one or two of you just like to quickly, let's not waste time, quickly just unmute, talk, you can briefly talk about the situation and what emotion you experienced. Yes, this is not a question answer. This is something that in your life you must have experienced some situation that you have experienced an emotion. Yes, waiting for responses. Even if you can just put it down on the chat, that's fine too. Okay, I think now I need to call out names, otherwise people may not respond. I need that. Anita, would you like to share some situation that's happened and a positive emotion that you felt as a result? Anita, are you there? Okay, maybe somebody else, Lea Lama or Laia Lama, I'm sorry if I haven't pronounced your name right. Laia Lama. Okay, maybe I will start. Yes, Subash, thank you. Yes. I think I recall when I got the first division in metric exam, I think in all my school, I think only four students, we got the first position and that very moment, I think the strengths is also they came to a house and they congratulated me and from our actually Christian background also only person I was. So I was really that time very happy that those people they don't know me, they come and congratulate and even I think that month I think I think we have distributed many switch to the strengths also because it was a joyful moment for me and for my school, even for my family as well as for the chairs also. Absolutely, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that. That's really nice. Okay, yeah, so as simple as that, right? So there may be small situations that really create a certain good emotion or a good feeling within us. For some of us who may have children, when you see something, when you're spending time with them, when you may see something about them or something that they are showing or some stage that they are in creates a very positive emotion. Thank you so much. Okay, so let's look at the next one. Similarly, if you can recall a situation that bought about a negative emotion or a negative feeling that you experienced any situation that created a negative emotion or a negative feeling, what was actually happening in that situation? Anybody else? Any one person? It's just personal sharing. Okay, there's no right wrong answers here. Any personal sharing? I'll share one. Yes, John. Yeah, so I think 2018 my mom's brother, he was not very old but he suddenly passed away and at that time I was very shocked to hear the news and it's very saddened because we as a family, we're all praying that he would be saved, you know, he would be born again. And suddenly when got the news, he was like, why? It's so saddened and why did it happen like this or why so soon? Kind of an emotion. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Yes, so we all experience different kind of situations that could bring about a negative emotion or a negative feeling. Right? Now, the reason why I bought these two issues was to help us understand that it is normal to feel both positive as well as emotions that may be more than me calling it negative, I'll call them signal emotions that are emotions that tend to create a lot more of disturbance, right? So that we call that signal emotions. So that can be it is normal to experience this. So depending on the situation, depending on how we think, how we perceive a situation, it can create a certain emotion. Now, every situation may not create similar responses for everybody. That's because the way that we perceive a situation like for example, maybe someone who, you know, who gets maybe a new job or a new, let's say maybe a new car or something new, the way that we express or feel our emotions could vary. All right. And that is a lot to do. There are many factors that create that sense of that emotional response. Okay. And it's a normal spectrum that you see. Nevertheless, there are certain things that we've got to keep in mind when we are talking about this broad topic of mental health. Okay. So I want to first of all, let's look clearly about when we're talking about mental health, what exactly are we bringing about or what do we think encompasses this mental health? So to have a positive or a good mental health is a delicate balancing act. And there are many factors that make up our mental well being. And it is from personal to social life, to your occupational life, to even your spirituality. Okay. So when certain areas of your life turn to get out of balance, it can lead to the mental health being affected. This is especially true for those who are actually living with some kind of a mental illness. All right. Now mental illness, which I'm going to be talking about later is another layer to this balancing act of keeping good mental health. Okay. So and that's why there are many tools or many techniques that are taught to help manage one's mental well being. And because it helps you to do something proactively to make adjustments in some areas of your life so that you can experience a better well being. Okay. Now what we see over here is called the wellness wheel. It's a very simple, it's a useful resource to look at the various aspects of life that may affect our mental health. So what exactly is this wellness wheel and how can we use this to work on our mental health and our wellness. So when we look at wellness, it is the concept of a good mental health and the absence of some distress or illness. When you're looking at wellness, okay. So reaching a place of wellness may not always be straightforward. And sometimes in that journey, you may not have any signpost that says that you have arrived there. Okay. So that is not just a single pathway to well be, but you know, it is something that we call, we say is collective or what we what we recognize at them as the multifaceted approach. That is, there are different facets to this wellness that we are talking about. So when we're looking at it, it gives you, you know, visual understanding that what are the different factors that affect your mental health. So it also helps us to make healthy decisions that contribute to a balanced and a meaningful life. So there are eight dimensions to this wellness wheel. And here you will see there's physical wellness, emotional wellness, intellectual wellness, social wellness, environmental wellness, occupational wellness, financial wellness, and spiritual wellness. So if you look at these dimensions, each of them contribute to your mental health. Okay. So let's look at some of them one by one. Now physical wellness is something that holds your overall mental health. That is, you know, this is a casing that you have, you know, the body that we see is a casing and caring for our body and listening to the cues it gives are vital parts of maintaining this aspect of mental health. When we neglect our physical wellness, it can can cause things like poor sleep quality. It can bring about illness, it can bring about injuries, it can bring about abuse. So one of the things is, yes, eating good food, exercising regularly, maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, all consists of positive physical wellness. And that's something like, like we are called to take care of our body, our body is the temple of God and we are to take care of the casing that we have. Because you would have noticed, you know, let's say, if any of you have gone through a period of illness for a certain period of time, it affects the way that you feel, it affects the way that you think, it affects the way that you pray, your physical well-being is significantly important. The next we can look at is emotional wellness. To understand that our emotions affect everything from our mood and even to the way or our mindset that we have in the way that we look on the world. So what is emotional wellness consists of? It consists of our thoughts, it consists of our emotions and our capabilities to deal with challenges that come in our lives. When our emotional cells are struggling, we have a very hard time to feel happy, to feel content or we have a hard time just sharing how we're doing with maybe other people or even the ability to relax. But when you are emotionally doing well, you can experience your emotions as they are while still feeling good about yourself. So which means having an awareness about the emotions and the thoughts that take our minds, okay? So we looked at physical, we looked at emotional aspect of it. The next one that we look at is the intellectual wellness. Now this is intellectual, this dimension doesn't mean you have to become a genius, it doesn't mean you have to have a high IQ, intelligent portion, you have to do everything well. It just simply refers to being able to engage in things that are stimulating and doing something that's creative that will engage your mind. So that can be in the form of work, it can be in the form of a vocation, it can be form of a passion, it can be anything. So it means you're able to think critically, you're open to new ideas, you're looking for outlets and solutions in your life. So the science of intellectual wellness actually includes having a strong understanding, awareness of what you're good at or what values you live by or what abilities you have and also to question your opinions and issues of yourself. So that's what we mean by intellectual awareness, not that you have to be perfect and the best in your field, it doesn't mean that it's just being able to be doing things that stimulate your intellect, stimulate your reasoning, stimulate your ability to judge. Next is the social wellness. Social wellness involves our connections between us, our family, our friends, our colleagues, our acquaintances, anyone else in your life. Now having good strong relationships makes a very positive, big difference to your mental health. When your social wellness is strong, you can communicate easily, you can be within a group of people, you can develop relationship with others and there are much more things that happen when you are socially connected with people. Okay, so that again is about. Now even when we're talking about social connections, there may be different kinds of people needing different kinds of connections, there may be a set of people who are okay to have many connections or many network support networks, there may be the others who are satisfied with few good and deep relationships, all of that doesn't matter, it doesn't matter the quantity, it just matters the quality of relationships people share and they need to have others in one's life. Are you all here with me? Yes, there's so much of silence, just a thumbs up or a hands up, I don't know that everyone's okay and here. Yeah, okay, all right. Okay, so let's move on. The next is occupational wellness. This again is another dimension and this means working in something that brings meaning and purpose to the work that you do. So if you work in a place or working in an area that doesn't make you feel a sense of usefulness or satisfaction, it can bring you down and leave feelings that you're wasting your time. But when you're dedicated to that occupation or vocation, you're doing that work that actually interests and motivates you to work hard and do your best. So to be able to be involved in some activity or the other, which can be occupational. Now it doesn't mean this needs to be paying you, like for example, let's say maybe homemakers or young mothers or women who may not be employed, it doesn't matter, it's just doing something, working in something that gives you a meaning and purpose. Okay, the next one is financial wellness. Although money isn't everything, having money definitely is a necessity for life and money sometimes can become a huge stressor and a severe lack of it can have a very serious impact on your mental health. So dedication to a financial wellness definitely gives you a chance at eliminating financial stress as much as possible. So financial wellness, what does it involve? It involves making responsible choices about your living within your means or even contributing to two different things in your life. Okay, so that's what we mean by financial wellness. Let's look at environmental wellness. Environmental wellness, what it means it refers to your surroundings. That is from your personal as well as to your professional or your ministry of life. Maintaining positive and environment wellness means being aware of the spaces that you spend your time in. That is if you're surrounded by negativity and stress, it is definitely going to cause your mental health to suffer. On the other hand, when you're engaged, when you're motivated, it eases despite the difficulties and challenges. So some examples, like I was saying is let's say, if a person is living in an extremely crowded housing, there is one room and there are 20 people living in that room, there is absolutely no space for anything. That can create a sense of a burden on mental health or you're living in an office space where there isn't any communication, where there is toxicity there. That can cause mental health issues or maybe in a relationship that is very burdening, where there is abuse or where there is either physical or emotional, any form of abuse that comes, that can create a definite stress to the mental health. And of course, spiritual wellness. It's that which involves the ability to build that relationship with God. It brings about building your beliefs and values that matter to a person and to recognize what is the purpose God has for them. So dedicating that time to cultivate spiritual wellness is very important. Now, when you're looking at it outside of Christianity or outside of our personal belief in our relationship, this thing about spiritual wellness sometimes takes in very different kinds of meanings. It's about just being self aware or just there are many aspects to it that others may believe in it. For our understanding, we know that having a relationship with the true God, with the almighty God is something that creates a whole lot of balance for us, even in the rest of our lives. So these are the eight aspects that we want to look at. Now, moving forward, there are certain factors that affect a person's mental health. What I did tell you was the wheel, the wellness that comes. But when we look at mental health issues, we see that there are different factors that can contribute to mental health issues. So if we're looking at it biologically, research has shown that sometimes there are illnesses that come as a result of neurochemical changes in the brain. And as a result, there can be certain mood symptoms, certain thought symptoms, behavioral issues that can come. There can be a genetic predisposition that is family history. If someone does have a certain illness, it's being passed on. So there is a genetic disposition that is you are liable to have a certain condition because your parents have had, and that's something that doctors will check. Medication side effects. Or there can be the fact that there is a lack of physical exercise and nutrition can also cause mental health issues. Developmental issues from the time a child is born, if developmental stages or milestones aren't in place, there can be mental health issues. So these are what you call as biological lots, many things that's concerned with the body. And I haven't mentioned a few here is also brain issues or organic causes. That is maybe there are structural changes in the brain, maybe somebody meets with an accident. And as a result, there are mental health conditions that happen or there may be tumors that cause mental health issues. So that's what we look at in the biological aspect. The next we look at is psychological. Psychological has everything to do in our understanding has everything to do with the soul. The way that a person identifies themselves, the kind of self-esteem that's been built, the self-acceptance that has come about the way that their temperaments have grown, their personality has come about. Then comes an emotional health. Then comes emotional health, the way that we are aware of our emotional responses, the way that we regulate our emotional responses and maintain our emotional responses. The others can include cognitive factors that is the way that our thought processes go. How do we think, what are the ways that we, what are our belief systems, what are our perceptions, all of this effect, these are part of our psychological processes, the things that happen in our mind, in our will and in our intellect. Then there can be behavioral factors that can be coping skills, how people manage stress, what do they do when there are crisis that happens, how do they generally cope. And last of course is to have a sense of meaning and a sense of purpose in their lives. All of this comes under the psychological part of it and over here there's a lot to do with spirituality also. The way that they connect to God and the way that they build that relationship with God. So these factors also affect mental health. And lastly it is the social factors. So your culture, the kind of culture you may be born in, the certain beliefs, both cultural as well as religious beliefs that a person has, the kind of support system that they have, the people that are part of their network, that can be a factor. Gender identity, the way that they see themselves, the kind of gender preferences that they take, the acceptance of gender. Now all of this definitely plays a role. Then other kind of social factors are upbringing, family background, what has happened initially in the family background, the trauma that's probably there, the kind of situations that's happened in their social existence. Then other things are employment, status, sexual orientation, what kind of orientation are they having that could add in a lot more stress than what is actually designed or socio-economic status and of course disability. So these are some things that brings about factors that affect mental health. Now I'm just going to quickly go through some statements and if you all are able to quickly respond, because I have quite a few, just to understand if they are myth or fact. So mental illnesses are untreatable. Do you think it's a fact or it's a myth? Okay, I'm going to keep going on on this, we'll never finish. So mental illnesses are treatable. There are ways that you can, there is help both with medication, with counseling and of course with spiritual deliverance. Mental illnesses are absolutely treatable. Lack of willpower causes mental illness. Mental illness has nothing to do with willpower. Okay, people, anyone, even maybe this one so-called the strongest person with willpower, the least person with willpower can have a mental illness. Okay, marriage can cure mental illness. Okay, I'd like some responses on this one. Maybe I'll look for responses on a few. Can marriage cure mental illness? No, marriage cannot cure. Okay, yes, marriage cannot cure mental illness. Yes, that's a myth. Because in fact, if you see, there is a stressor scale that's there and marriage, of course, death is the highest stress level, which counts to a hundred. If you're looking from zero to a hundred, sorry, death comes at hundred, marriage comes actually at a 50. And, you know, change of work, change of job, sorry, change of job, change of a housing all comes under that place of 50, 60 stress level. Because, you know, there are different things that are required in a person's life when they're getting into marriage. So it doesn't cure mental mental illness. So it's a myth if people say that, you know, mental illness will sort the person's issues. Okay, mental health patients belong to hospitals. That's untrue. People may require for a brief period of time to get support from a hospital, but they do not belong to hospitals, they can actually come back home, get back into a job, depending on the kind of illness that they have. If treated early, if helped early, they definitely can get the best support possible. Mental health problems are only seen in illiterate or poor people, that again is true. Mental health problems is not a respecter of people, it's not a respecter of caste, creed, respecter of economic status, none of that. Okay, next. Yeah. Okay, people with mental illness can never be productive or do normal work like normal people. That again, again is a myth that people with mental illness definitely can get back to working, to leading a normal life like others, if they do get the support and the help that they that they require and they need. If mental illness is looked into as early as possible, the outcome is seen to be much, much better. Okay, mental illness is unlike physical illness, the illness is rarely all in the person's head. That's not true. It's not something that the person is making up. It's something that can be very real. And it's a reality for them when they are in there. So they definitely require empathy, require support, require help, require an understanding in working through these issues. Mentally ill people have weak characters, since they can't cope with the world in the same way that the rest of us do. Again, that's not true. Then if this has nothing to do, mental illness has nothing to do with the character frame of a person, nevertheless, the choices people make can definitely affect their mental health. So someone who makes poor choices, like for example, someone who is abusing their body with substances, who may be in significantly bad relationships, multiple relationships, people who do not have a purposeful activity to do. Now, the certain choices that people make can affect their mental health. Any questions here? I have one more slide. So once a psychiatric patient, always a psychiatric patient, again, not true. Once a psychiatric patient, once they're helped, they can come to become as normal as possible. Children don't suffer from psychiatric illnesses. That again, is false. Children also can have similar disorders and illnesses that you see even in adults, whether it be mood disorders, whether it be like depression, whether it be more major mental health issues like schizophrenia, these maybe names you have heard, but these all affect children. Anxiety, OCD, that's obsessive compulsive disorders, all of this can affect even children. Mental health disorders are a result of bad parenting. This is something I'd like to maybe stop to hear some comments. Is it a result of bad parenting? Is it a myth or a fact? Not necessarily. Bad parenting also could result in some mental issues, but eventually it also depends on that person's trauma or change in their hormones or anything of that sort. Absolutely. Yes. So it can contribute, a bad childhood, bad parenting definitely can contribute to somebody's mental health, but it may not be a direct cause of a mental illness. There could be many, many factors. So some of these are proven, especially when you have twins in a home where there are significant abuse or neglect from parents or from the caretakers, you may see that one of them could go down a mental health issue, whereas the other seems to be well balanced, well adjusted. And this is what indicates that it also personality, it's also the mental framework, the kind of support that they have received being able to cope with these issues. So there are multiple factors. It's just not a single factor. Okay, good. Let's move on to the next one. Mental illnesses are contagious. It's not like COVID. It's not like anything else that if you sneeze or if you sit next to somebody, eat from their plates, that you will get mental illness. Okay, it just isn't a way of, it doesn't spread that way. Attempting suicide is a sign of cowardice. Okay, I'd like to hear some thoughts on this one. Attempting suicide is a sign of cowardice. Yes. Yes, go ahead. Go ahead, Lubega. I can say to the greatest extent, yes, it's a fact. Okay, you say it's a fact. Okay, anybody else thinks otherwise? I don't think it's a sign of cowardice, but being frightened about what to do next could be a reason, but the things we said is an extreme form of lack of self-worth and understanding about ourselves. Okay, thank you. Right. So many times, if you look at statistics, suicide usually is attempted because of a mental health issue, either because of depression or because of other mental health concerns like schizophrenia, substance use. So depression can come secondary to another mental health condition. So very often, and there is a statistic to it, and we're going to be talking about suicide separately, so I'll bring those statistics then. But there are, yes, other causes of suicide which could be adjustment issues, issues and relationships, significant trauma that happens, impulsivity that takes place. So some of this, and as Pastor John did say, it comes as an inability to know that there are coping, that they can cope with it, inability to see beyond what is imminent for them. Okay. So sometimes it's a huge, it takes a lot for a person to actually come to a place of suicide because if you look at some reports that you see, a lot of those who attempted and completed an act of suicide comes from maybe days or months of planning to come to that place. So it could be as a result of what they've been preparing themselves to do. Nevertheless, it's an extremely sad place to be in. It just shows a huge sense of loneliness, a huge sense of despondency and hopelessness in that area. Okay. And that's what we need to be aware of that someone who's attempting, contemplating suicide, definitely needs empathy. Definitely needs warmth. Definitely needs a place of understanding. Okay. Next one, mentally ill patients are violent and dangerous. Again, not all mentally ill patients are violent and dangerous. Sometimes when they are at the peak of their episodes of health issues, then they can be violent towards themselves and towards others. But usually it comes because of wrong thoughts and perceptions that they are having and it's like a sense to protect themselves that they feel they need to protect themselves and as a result may get violent, but they're not always violent and dangerous. If they get the help they need, they are able to manage. Okay. I need the next one. Mentally ill means the person has a lack of faith. I need some thoughts on this. What are your thoughts? Yes, somebody else. I think Pastor John and Lubega and Divya have been, someone else would like to speak. Rosalind, Paul, success. Anita, the silence. Nobody wants to take the, come on. Okay. Do any of you agree with this? Divya said it's a myth. Does anyone say it's a fact? At least I like that. So at least I know what your thoughts are. Does anyone say it's a fact? You know, you should either, it's a myth. Okay. You should either be on the side or that side. God spews out lukewarm people from his mouth. So you have to make a choice either here or right with them. Okay. So mentally ill people, it does not mean that they do not have faith. Okay. There is nothing, there's no indication, nothing that says that someone who is ill is because they have a lack of faith. And that's something I think we need to be sensitive about as we reach out to people because this is, this is something mental health issues are, is a condition that you will see in the church as well, right? Among people who may be worshiping and outside with you. And to label them as people with a lack of faith or a trust in God or a relationship with God can in fact bring them to a very, they can get burnt, you know, they can get church burnt and can move them away from understanding what actually love means. So being careful and sensitive to the fact that this has nothing to do with their ability to stand in faith or not. Okay. All right. Let's move forward. Okay. So just quickly to understand, oh my, I think we are, we are at an hour. Okay. So we'll move into this after the break, it's 10.50 to 10.51. We will resume back at 11.1. We'll see you in 10 minutes.