Students don role of counsellors

‘You elders don’t understand us’ is a phrase most parents would have heard from their teenage children at some point or the other.

Teenagers and adolescents face myriad problems and when they do, the turn to their friends and peers. This is led to the concept of student counsellors, which has caught in the West and is now becoming popular in India. One place with student counsellors is Jamnabai Narsee School at Juhu.

Their school counsellor, Jeevan D’Cunha, implemented this two years back through a programme called the Jamnabai Adolescent Mentor (JAM) through which 55 students from classes IX and X have been trained to don the role of student counsellors.

“Adolescents talk best to adolescents,” says D’Cunha, “The idea was to tap into this and that’s what gave rise to JAM. Through JAM, we identified and trained a body of students to be able to help other students.”

 The 55 students had to apply, appear for a written test and an interview, besides being recommended by teachers. On selection, they had to undergo intensive training for two days away from school. “In the training programme, they are taught basic counselling skills, teenage problems are discussed, and they are taught how to deal with them. But the training can never be too specific,” says D’Cunha.

Student counsellors are not only helpful to fellow students, but they too learn in the process. Luv Seth, a class X student counsellor, joined JAM when he was going through some personal difficulties.

“I enrolled thinking if I can help others, I may be able to help myself. I was initially hesitant to approach the school counsellor, but after being a part of JAM and counselling others, I had no qualms in approaching Mr D’Cunha with my problems,” he says.

He believes there are many like him who would be sceptical about approaching a formal counsellor and such a programmes help them out. But there are occasions when student counsellors feel the need to involve the school counsellor. Luv recalls when a student whose mother had expired had sought his help.

“After one session, I directed him to our school counsellor as I felt he could handle it better,” says Luv.

Apart from the two-day session, student counsellors have meetings and sessions with the school counsellor at regular intervals, where they discuss the difficulties they are facing or any other problems.

Jiya Jaisingh, another 15-year-old counsellor, says her experience has helped her. “I have learnt so much through other people’s experiences. I have also learnt to stay calm and to effectively deal with my own problems,” she says.