Peer Counselling and group therapy Discussion

 

Peer-Counselling Training Intiative - Steering Committee Meeting

The Shakti Center & The Center for Counselling

Date: Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Venue: Center for Counselling, Chennai.

Members present:

Magdalene Jeyarathnam, Center for Counselling

Padma Govindan, The Shakti Center

Anirudhan Vasudevan, The Shakti Center

Thamilarasi, Center for Counselling

Sankari, Center for Counselling

Sunil Menon, Sahodaran

Anto, SWAM

Siva (Sangama)

Shakti MCCSSW

Srivath Kumar

Teja

Sundar Sahodaran

Sudhakar Sahodaran

Srinivasan SWAM

As a step towards the next level of their LGBTQ peer-counselling training intitative, The Shakti Center and the Center for Counselling organized a steering group meeting. It started with a brief introduction to the peer-counselling training intiative and a recap of the separate sessions that were conducted in June-July 2008 to assess the counselling-related needs of transgender women, lesbian and bisexual women, kothis, gay and bisexual men. Group counselling sessions held at the Center for Counselling were also briefly discussed to understand both individal and collective needs.

Fresh out of the shock of the death of Sathya, a transgender woman and a participant in the group therapy sessions, members present at the meeting found it necessary to talk about it and the issue involved: sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), myths and beliefs, medical practice, etc. Satya had gone to a quack for her surgery and had died right after the administering of the anaesthesia. This brought us squarel to the issues around SRS, the illegal and uncertified procedures performed by quacks in places like Pazhamaneri, Dindigul and Cuddapah, and the importance SRS assumes in the minds of pre-op transgender women. Besides the reiteration of the dissatisfaction and health complications discussed by some Aravani (transgender women in Tamil Nadu) participants of this program, the group also identified the need to collate accurate information about the Government Order regarding legalizing SRS, the proper  procedures followed at hospitals like Ramachandra Medical College Hospital and the Govt. Hospital in Vellore. It was decided that this information, along with an explication of the risks involved in going for the emasculation procedure to quacks, without any medical profiling, has to be published and publicized. This would form part of the peer-counselling training manual the preparation of which will be the main focus of the initiative for the next six months.

It was also noted that this step should lead us towards looking at establishing counselling-related criteria when it comes to legalized SRS. Creating basic medical profiles for Aravanis considering SRS also becomes crucial, since complications in this irreversible procedure are often due to a complete ignorance of prior health profiles.

When it came to the discussion of the increase in number of people opting for the emasculation surgery these days, Aravani and Kothi members shared narratives about themselves and their choices. The connection between the tendency to consider one's physical and emotional wellbeing and one's self-esteem repeatedly emerged in these narratives. Everyone felt that to be at the root of several issues. Participants from the group counselling sessions said that they benefit from the sessions not only in terms of getting to discuss and hear psychlogical issues, but also from meeting and forming new bonds with new people periodically. These group counselling sessions for members of the LGBTQ community, conducted at the Center for Counselling, have been successful and have resulted in requests to continue them. So both Tamil and English group sessions resume next week onwards. The question of documenting the sessions was also discussed.

While some participants in the peer-counselling training intitiative have experiences working in HIV/AIDS programs and hence have a functional knowledge of HIV and other STIs, some others have only a peripheral and inadequate understanding of the same viz-a-viz risks, protection, modes of transmission etc. Therefore the need for a clear discussion of sexual health issues both in the sessions as well as in the training manuals was emphasized.

Work ahead:

(a) Collation of data on SRS - hospitals where it is performed legally and with proper medical care, specialists

(b) Clear information about the SRS procedure - difference from emasculation procedures performed by quacks - health risks etc.

(c) Outlining of the peer-counselling training manual

(d) Continuing the group counselling sessions - documentation of issues discussed. 

Loss of our dear friend Sathya

Sathya

Sathya receiving a certificate from Eric Miller for attending the relationship skills workshop held in our office in Jan 2008. Sathya has attended another of our workshop on Group therapy.

Sathya also attended our group therapy sessions. The last session she was present was on the pros and cons of going for surgery. Sathya was very keen on emasculation. 

In fact, it was heart warming for me to see group members tell her that she must have one on one sessions with me before she goes for the surgery. But, Sathya had other plans, she did not want to wait, she had waited long enough. She was looking forward to becoming "a woman". 

We heard Sathya died friday 14th November in the hospital where she got herself admitted to undergo the surgery. We had convened a group session on Dec 1st to discuss what Sathya's death meant to each of us. 

We had mixed feelings... sometimes we felt angry, sometimes we felt guilty, sometimes we felt sad, we still feel a lot of pain and no denying the fact that we all miss her. She was very kind and gentle to all who knew him. She was also a pillar of support to her family especially her sisters.

We  don't have to wait for another death, we at Center for Counselling are resolved in getting together and supporting those who want the surgery, and  give counselling support for all those plan to undergo this surgery.

Approaches to counselling Children

This 4 hour workshop was for 14 people working with Orphan and vulnerable children. The participants were from various NGOs and the training was organised by Community Health Education Society.  

This training was again very new to almost all participants. We got a very good feedback from the participants.

We introduced Storytelling and Art as approaches to working with children. We used a series of activities to explain why these approaches will work.

"It was nice to having you both(Magdalene and Thamilarasi) with us in our learning process. Today's session was a excellent experience for all the participants and very special for me in learning about the child's feeling. I was much impressed." - Valavan V.S, Program Manager (Technical), CHES, Chennai

Pediatric Counselling

This session was for around 15 counsellors working in the Pondicherry State AIDS control Society's Integrated counselling and testing centers (ICTCs), which comes under the National AIDS Control Organisation. 

This was a refresher training session planned for counsellors in the ICTCs. The session carried very practical methods of working with children. We introduced storytelling exercises which helped the counsellors understand what really was meant by child centered counselling.

Most of the counsellors felt, this was the first time someone was explaining how to work with children. The counsellors were very appreciative about the session which they conveyed to us directly and also had given a feedback to the training institute which is South India AIDS Action Programme.

Issues in counselling adolescents Nov 7,2008

 

                       

This half a day session was conducted for the counsellors working in Tambaram hospital. These counsellors see clients of all ages. Government Hospital ,Tambaram is one of the biggest hospitals which treat HIV/AIDS patients for about 20 or more years now. They have a case load of 17,000 patients a year. Patients come for treatment of TB as well as HIV/AIDS with TB as co infection.

This hospital has 28 counsellors and the counsellors come from many NGOs as well as about 5 employed by the TANSACS directly. This session was requested by the counsellors as one of their needs in improving counselling skills.

Workshop on "Loss and grief counselling" 28th - 30th Nov

The participants of the workshop are counsellors working in schools, HIV/AIDS and MSM project. Those coming from a background of helping clients cope with loss and grief found this workshop very helpful.

S.No	Topics	What it covers?
1.	What is Grief ?	Death and Dying Symptoms of grief
2.	Grief and Depression	Understanding of being stuck in grief Difference and similarities between grief and depression
3.	Grief and Stress	Co-relation between Stress and Grief
4.	Stages of grief - Dr. Elizabeth Kubler- Ross	·      Video on stages of grief ·       Personal Understanding of grief
5.	Types of bereavement	Discussion of various types of bereavement
6.	Rituals and cultural response to bereavement	Methods of community grieving Importance of rituals
7.	Types of loss/ grief	Types of losses and one’s response.
8.	Coping with loss and grief	Helping the counsellor to help the client                to care for oneself. Power of positive attitude Problem solving approach Managing  emotions - learning to relax        Back to routine
9.	Case studies	Presentation and discussion

Some of the feedback from the participants 

“The workshop session was different. The few points that I learnt from the workshop was how to counsel clients with issues of loss and grief. This workshop was totally different and had not heard about it before. It was very interesting and I learnt how to take on this challenge. The hospitality was excellent.” - Ashraf, Islamic School/V Excel chennai.

“The workshop session was very informative. The few points that I learnt from the workshop was validating others emotions by giving them time to speak and cry. I also understood that everybody needs a place and a person to go meet and pour their sorrows. I also learnt that we should be the strong shoulders for them. My suggestions and comments is that please continue with your workshops even if it rains. Congratulations for the  topic you chose it for the current situation and people need these types of workshop to improve one selves and bring peace and happiness in their family”.  - Mariam Basheer, Special educator Chennai

“The workshop session was really excellent for me. Now I can differentiate grief, depression and stress. This is my first counselling workshop but it gave me a lot of knowledge, technique and confidence. The few points that I learnt from the workshop was to measure grief, depression and stress. Different types of losses. How rituals help people. Counselling technique, how to probe so that counsellors get more and more information from client. It was a very good workshop”.- Sudha Jha, SAATHII Calcutta.

 

“The workshop was very good. The few points that I learnt from the workshop is that everyone experiences loss and grief and it depends on how individuals take it and I also learnt that there are five stage in grieving and we have to accept that. I also learnt the difference between depression, stress and loss. I also learnt how to give counselling to these issues” - K. Sundar, Sahodaran Chennai. 

Counsellor's Conference , 25th Nov

  

Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society organised a conference for all counsellors working in the ICTCs in TN. This conference was organized on 24th and 25th Nov . There were about 800 counsellors from Intergrated Counselling Tested Center (ICTC) of various district Head quarters, GH, Primary health centers and ART centers.  

Center for Counselling worked in the abstract committee and the planning of the technical sessions for the conference. The abstracts were selected for oral and poster presentations. Our founder made a presentation on the topic - "Child centered approaches for counselling children". This conference was a huge programme organised by the TANSACS. This effort to celebrate the counsellor's role in handling HIV/AIDS in Tamil Nadu is highly commendable and makes a difference to all the counsellors who attended the conference. The counsellors had a great time meeting one another and discussing counselling issues.

They had a debate on "Mandatory testing for HIV before marriage" which was moderated by Mr Illanzheian - Director IEC, APAC, Dr Devashish Dutta -UNICEF, Mr Patrick Nadol - ITECH, Nisha Gupta - CDC, Rohini Ramamurthy - PO - Counselling, NACO and Magdalene Jeyarathnam - our founder gave their comments on the abstracts presented by the counsellors. 

The health minister of the TN state Mr MRK Paneer Selvam was present for the valedictory.