Concepts Learned or Ideas/insights Gained

Concepts Learned or Ideas/Insights Gained

Many years ago, I was one of those who believed that being called at the guidance office would always mean trouble. However, with many years of work experience, and recently, with the discussion on myth busters on school counseling, it has become more and more real to me that guidance is not just for "problem kids", is not just about addressing crises points and solving those crises points. It is about addressing human concerns in all aspects of human development and adjustments--- crisis or no crisis. After all, facilitating development can be approached in many different ways depending on how the concern presents itself since "the welfare of every individual... is the foremost concern of guidance [and counseling]" (Cinco, 2008, p. 39).

As much as we try to prevent any single crisis from happening and try as best as we could to proactively deal with problem right before it happens, crisis situation will still arise. It is of course disheartening when it does happen but it gives us hope that a healing relationship through counseling has something better to offer that facilitate resolution of the problems and that through these crises points, we gain insights on how we can avoid future problems. These problems then enrich preventive guidance and counseling techniques. As Cinco (2008) puts it, dealing with problems as they arise also requires as to deal with their causes so as to better prepare us from preventing it from happening again or to formulate better solution for their prevention or remediation.

As we go on our daily struggles, consciously or unconsciously, we engage in our own healing and unknowingly sometimes, we may have been healed by someone or we may have healed someone through a variety of practical and caring ways in which we deal with people. Healing relationship with people is a powerful tool in healing ourselves, too. When we successfully remedy something, it puts us in a better light to deal with it when they arise again.

Application to my Personal Life

What do we really do when a crisis arises? How do we deal with someone else's pain, especially our own kid's pain? As an only child, my daughter used to worry about having another kid at home for fear that dad and mom might love her less and consequently spend more time with the prospective baby and less time with her. In view of preparing her to this possibility, I have been making transitioning process with her such as asking her how she feels to have someone to share her toys with at home. It seemed difficult for her at first to be sharing toys and more difficult to share mom and dad with another baby. Gradually I shifted the questioning to more mature ones hoping to be able to " tap" the nurturing side of her. I was glad I did! Slowly she opened up to the possibility of having a new baby with her as "big sister"; to coo her and make her laugh, hug her and try to comfort her "little sister" when she is crying, to put blankie on her when she feels cold, to help mommy push her stroller, to share her old baby clothes with her, help me care for her and other stuff. Soon, she was talking about sharing her toys with her. Jealousy and sibling rivalry is a real scary thing for kids as well as for parents and the possibility of it happening can potentially all parties involved especially an older kid. In this