“And of His Signs is that He has created spouses for you from your own kind that you may find peace in them and He has set between you love and mercy. Surely there are Signs in this for those who reflect.†(Surah ar-Room, 30:21)
Personal counseling has never been more needed than it is today. There is an urgent need to rescue toxic and failing relationships, relationships within families, between neighbours, between communities and even countries, before we self-destruct as a human race.
The most important relationship for our existence is husband-wife and parents-children relationships. Psychological stress and depression are found in people of all ages, regions, countries and societies. One in four Muslim adults experience at least one diagnosable stress and relationship related health problem in any one year, and one in six experiences this at any given time.
Counseling is a process by which people of all ages are helped to gain fresh insight, to have a different perspective and to find motivation. Over a series of one-to-one sessions in a confidential and supportive setting, counseling can help you make changes in your life. Counseling facilitates the sharing of thoughts and feelings. It aids the process of empowering people to discover their own answers, and to feel more in control of their own life and relationships.
Obsessed with, and doing so much to increase the life span of human beings, have we ever given thought to the quality of life we lead? Physical well-being and health is given the highest priority with newer drugs flooding the market every day. Has anyone ever thought as much about emotional well-being and mental health?
There is an invisible stigma attached to counseling, wherein general practitioners hesitate to refer cases for personal counseling, fearing that the patients may take offence. Denial of the need for therapy only compounds the problem, for if there is anything worse than having a problem, it is denying that you have one. Timely intervention of counseling can avert many a disaster.
If, during these times of stress, competition and low frustration tolerance, the disturbed individual is able to find immediate help in his family, social or work environment in the form of an empathetic and caring listener who will give him a ‘hand up’, many disasters can be averted. He can then subsequently be referred to a professional counselor.
There is an urgent need for establishing meaningful human interaction between people. The fast-paced, highly competitive urban world, the breakup of the joint family system, increase in the number of women working outside the house, single child norm, etc., means that a friend in need is even more required today. If we can increase the number of such ‘friends’ who ‘dare to care’, the rate of disturbed individuals becoming chronically-ill and disabled will most definitely reduce.
There are times in our lives when many of us feel unable to cope. For example, maybe you are: