Personal Guidance: Nature of Emotional Problems

Introduction

          Generally, there are four aspects of an individual’s life—social, family, physical and mental. The non-fulfilment of needs developed due to these four aspects gives rise to varied problems in an individual’s life. The help that is rendered for resolving these problems is called personal guidance. Personal guidance concerns an individual’s personal and social adjustment problems because it aims to assist in his physical, emotional, social, moral and spiritual development and adjustment. The idea of personal guidance is designed to make the client understand himself and his unique characteristics.

Objectives of Personal Guidance

1. To help the client in dealing with challenging situations.
2. To assist the client in understanding self and designing the future course of action.
3. To help the individual in modifying his behaviour to suit his/her personality needs.
4. To assist the individual in identifying their strengths and weaknesses.
5. To strengthen the client’s decision-making ability and improve conflict resolution capacities.
6. To help the individual in psycho-social adjustment.

Salient Features of Personal Guidance (PG)

1. The concept of PG focuses on the individual rather than the problems faced by the individual.
2. It is dedicated to enhancing the psycho-social capacities of an individual.
3. It is concerned with self-awareness and identification of self in the context of the immediate psycho-social environment.
4. Personal guidance is related to developing empathy, skills and other abilities.
5. It offers a platform for balancing emotional intelligence and expressing situation-specific emotions.
6. The PG assists in setting personal objectives in consonance with unique strengths and abilities.
7. The PG transcends beyond explaining vocational and educational guidance.
8. PG is the combination of all types of guidance models.

Nature of Emotional Problems in Context of Personal Guidance (PG)

Personal guidance is a combined model that includes educational and vocational guidance models. The thrust area of PG is making the individual capable of handling life challenges and making decisions. The individual who finds it hard to manage his/her emotions and expression usually faces difficulties in decision-making and working personal relations. When emotions override pragmatism and ground realities, the individual feels incapable of decision-making. The most common emotional issues that are addressed through personal guidance are: -

1. Management of stress and developing coping strategies,
2. The persistent feeling and consequent expression of sadness, hopelessness and helplessness.
3. The life challenges occurring due to transitions and other factors related to the psycho-social adjustment.
4. Addressing the emotional distress due to discord in personal, family and social relationships.
5. Addressing the emotional imbalances developed due to grief and loss.
6. Dealing with borderline mental health issues, in other words, the behavioural peculiarities that have the potential to interfere with day-to-day life activities.
7. General as well as specific individual issues that are likely to hinder the development of an individual.
8. The emotional problems crop up due to unmet expectations and over-ambitiousness.

 

The most common emotions experienced during challenging situations include fear, sadness, anger, frustration, anxiety and hopelessness. These emotions unconsciously modulate human behaviour in the direction undesired by the individual. The resultant behaviour further gives negative feedback, further escalating the intensity and frequency of these emotions. For example, fear leads to anxiety, anxiety overestimates the threat, and overestimation leads to excessive and exaggerated responses. The continuous fear is likely to develop primary phobic reactions. In this context, the PG often involves a combination of active listening, empathetic support, goal-setting, and skill-building. Tailoring the guidance to the individual's specific needs is essential, considering their unique circumstances and preferences.

          The following are the significant problems associated with emotional experience and expression: -

1. Escalation of undesired response.
2. Enhanced intensity and frequency of expression and experience of emotions.
3. Continued experience of negative emotions may lead to the development of mental disorders.
4. Issues related to conflict resolution.
5. Cognitive block due to lack of space for emotional expression.
6. The resurfacing of memories related to the traumatic events resulting in behavioural abnormality.
7. Self-defeating behaviour due to self-perceived low self-esteem.
8. continuous failure can result in low self-confidence, likely compromising psycho-social competencies.

 

 

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