Counselling should be prioritized for teenagers and young adults, for it plays a pivotal role in their developmental stages. It is a period that alters several aspects of a human’s life and brings about many issues, which would be easier for anyone to manage if they were to seek the help of a professional. Counseling fosters youth’s independence equips them with positive ways of handling situations that positively affect their lives, and enables them to choose the right paths to maximizing their potential.
Understanding Teenager’s Needs
Teenager’s development is characterized by numerous changes that take place at rapid rates. These changes are evident during the adolescent period and involve changes in physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development that may, in one way or another, affect the well-being of youths.
Their main concern is to search for their identity, to become independent, and to find purpose in a growingly complicated world. However, they can lack the experience and the maturity to solve these problems independently. The support they receive from a counselor they may consider appropriate, non-emotional, and non-critical may provide them with the comprehension, measures, and encouragement they need.
Areas where attention is needed
Academic pressures
Due to rising pressure of competition, examinations, comparison with other students and parents’ high expectations, most teenagers face tremendous academic pressure. Counselling provides them with an opportunity to look at things differently, work on set expectations, learn how to study better, be motivated, as well as learn how to cope with anxiety. This allows them to exert their best efforts towards their academic endeavors while at the same time not having to worry about the lack of sleep or the need to seek some form of rest.
Career confusion
It is an outstanding achievement for young people to decide what kind of job they want. However, with choices that never seem to end, information that comes in torrents and from all sides, and people telling them what to do from all sides, they only get lost. It helps them to know their potential and area of strength, what they intend to do, and the most appropriate course of action to take.
Physical and mental health
From the physical changes, for example, the worrying over body image, to the psychological changes, such as dealing with new emotions, the adolescent years can be a struggle for a teenager. It offers them an environment to talk freely about matters they consider personal, it provides them with professional advice on how to take care of their health, and it gives them emotional support.
Relationships and sexuality
Some of the most common issues that make youths consult with counsellors include friendship and romantic interests, pressure from peers, confidentiality and consent as well as sexual health. Some of the ways counselling assist are by tackling negative perception on relationships, conflict resolution, communicating effectively, making constructive choices on relationships and intimacy, and reducing risky behaviours.
Benefits of Counselling
- Improves cognitive health, and helps build the fortitude to handle other challenges.
- Creates strategies that can be used in managing different aspects of one’s life.
- Enhances self-awareness and self-esteem
- Improves decision making abilities
- Health promotion encourages positive behaviors and choices
- It enhances student achievement and outcomes in different fields.
- Enables better relationships
Approaches to Youth Counselling
Counselling can be done individually or in groups. Group counselling allows youths with similar issues to discuss with fellow participants and be motivated by them. School based counselling is the process through which clients receive assistance within school concerning studies, careers and relationship issues.
The treatment involves the parents conducting family therapy that enhances the relations within the family. Web-based counseling helps remove barriers to professional help. However, the style of counseling hence adopted requires to be sensitive, accepting, and young people-oriented regardless of the technique used.
Conclusion
Adolescence and young adulthood are other critical phases in which people appear most at risk. As much as they get to experience the dynamism the world provides them, they undergo lifelong turbulence both internally and in their environment.
Outright professional youth counseling is essential for this age group in order to support them through the different challenges, devoid of the optimum opportunity for personal and professional growth, strength, and skill acquisition for the rest of adulthood. If informed properly, young people should be able to have the necessary knowledge and skills that enable them to become responsible citizens who have well-balanced personality and character.