Counselling at its Best

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, or BACP, define counselling as:

  “Counselling and psychotherapy are umbrella terms that cover a range of talking therapies. They are delivered by trained practitioners who work with people over a short or long term to help them bring about effective change or enhance their wellbeing.”

So basically, students meet their counsellor at a specified time, at a designated place (New York College Campus in Kallithea) for six sessions, to either bring about effective change or to enhance their well-being.

As we all know, well-being is a state of feeling healthy and happy. For me, this means being able to cope with stressors (because stressors are a part of everyday life), maintaining balance, and being mindful that there is meaning in everything that is done and that no matter what obstacles appear in front of us, they remain challenges to be overcome that make us stronger; inevitably we learn a lot about how to enhance our everyday life amongst other things. In order to bring about change and to enhance our well-being, it is important to recognize how we think and just how the quality of our thoughts affect our being. Not only this, but our thoughts continually dart between our emotions and what we think we know about others and their motivations, or how we judge situations. So the benefit of learning how to be more positive, mindful and how in general to find purpose in what we are doing, is an important aspect of counselling.

As the counsellor for New York College students, my focus is always on the student’s needs and what often emerges from our interactions are self-regulation skills, flexibility, wellbeing, empathy, communication, collaboration, a growth mindset, critical thinking and managing learning amongst other. Students come for their personal and professional development, relationship issues, anxiety, stress, and often just because they need to share how they are feeling and thinking. It is often healing just to know that a trained professional will listen to you with deep empathy and no judgement at all, in a safe, confidential, and warm environment. It is often very wise to know how to cope with change before facing stressful events, rather than going to see a counsellor when we are overwhelmed. This is counselling at its best! Booking for a series of six sessions is easy because all you need to do is to send an email to the Head of Counselling, Dr. Antonia Svensson at counseling@nyc.gr and I will look forward to welcoming you to the counselling office in the Kallithea campus. Counselling appointments are currently available during the following times: Monday mornings from 9-12.00, Tuesday evenings from 16.00-21.00 and Friday mornings from 9.00-13.00.

Always take care of yourself. The self is precious. Be mindful of the learning lessons hidden in every aspect of life! This is what makes life so rich and rewarding.