Webinar provides deeper insights on counselling

By Nisya Salsabila Putri

“You should not be doing it out of a need to save people”, said Dr Anasuya when asked about the characteristics of a counsellor; “it is about supporting people.”

Along with Assoc Prof Dr Anasuya Jegathesan—programme director for Taylor’s psychology program, Evan Kook from Taylor’s Centre for Counselling Services, and lecturer Joshua Ng, carried out the hour-long online webinar on 6 May.

Titled “Counselling: Impact and Career Opportunities”, this seminar was held to share about the field of counselling through discussions and the speakers’ experiences.

The event was kicked-off with the sharing of Evan’s 10 years experience as a counsellor for Taylorians, followed by Ng’s counselling skills that he learned from his masters degree and how he later found them to be suitable in other fields too.

Joshua Ng shared how his counselling skills helped him with several international workshops

(Source: Personal archive)

One of the transferable competencies was listening skills.

He mentioned that regardless of a person’s line of work, to be able to really listen to other people without judgement is highly crucial.

The participants of the webinar comprised of Taylor’s students and staff that had registered for the event beforehand.

Gwen Teoh, a Broadcasting student said that the session was both inspiring and insightful as she got to learn more about real-life experiences of a counsellor, compared to the theories she received in class.

One of them being the discussion that occurred on the perks and catches of counselling psychology students.

“For me it is easier because they already know the concept, they just need to implement it in their lives” said Evan.

Though for Dr Anasuya, their ability to catch their counselling tricks makes supporting them tricky.

Gwen also expressed her excitement for the upcoming masters degree in counselling that Taylor’s University is planning to offer.

She said, “I’m looking forward to learning more about it once the course has been launched officially.”

Dr Anasuya mentioned that the master degree is planned to be offered in August this year.