College Counselling Department
In addition to the Student Life Ministry Team, the college provides the services of professional counsellors who are available to give confidential counselling services to students.
Counselling Department exists to help our students make the most of themselves as developing persons. In other words, the Counselling Department deals with the holistic well being of our students. It exists to support the Tangaza students in their quest for further development as Human Persons choosing to be the best people they can be.
The Counselling Department does this through:
• Offering individual counselling sessions with professionally qualified counselors,
• Offering assistance through various Human Development workshops/seminars throughout the academic year,
• Offering training for mentors for the various Institutes within the University College
• Offering training and coordination of Peer Counsellors among the members of the Student Body.
Individual Counselling describes what happens when a person is helped to grow and make changes in his/her personal life or in their relationships with others. It is a helping relationship between a trained helper/counsellor and a person seeking help in which both the skills of the helper and the trusting atmosphere help people learn to relate with themselves and others in a growth producing ways.
Counselling can be helpful at any time, when you have a sense that you are undergoing change or experiencing some unsettled feelings or confusion. The change may be involved in personal growth, in understanding yourself and emotions, in making choices in lifestyle or career, in dealing with difficulties. This change may involve your relationships with others, in understanding and expressing your love, in separating from another. Counselling can be helpful when you just want to understand better what is going on for you, or how you can cope in the face of personal difficulties and life seems out of balance.
What is discussed in counselling sessions is held in strictest confidence. No written or verbal report about discussions can be given without a person’s expressed consent. The sole exception to this would be when a counsellor believes the person intends to seriously harm him/herself or to inflict physical injury upon a specified other person. In such a case the counsellor is bound to alert proper authorities to ensure the safety of specified persons.
The counselling rooms are in the corridor opposite the main chapel in Imani House (Rooms 4E1 – 4E8). Students can make arrangements through the Coordinator of the Counsellors, whose office is Room 4E8, or can approach the counsellors directly.
The effort is made to ensure the presence of a college counsellor on campus on a daily basis, especially in the morning hours. However, students who make a prior arrangement for counselling sessions, are given preference.
Peer Counselling
We all know that sometimes life can be hard and one may need extra help. The Peer Counsellors are trained volunteer students from the University College community, who offer themselves to assist their peers, their fellow students, in the normal issues faced in the life of students.
The Peer Counsellors have the use of a counselling room (4E6) to assist their fellow students, which is booked through the Student Life office.
The Peer Counsellors give this service free in order to help their fellow students overcome some of the challenges they are facing, and facilitate their maturation. The College Peer Counsellors may refer students to more advanced counselling services, such as those requiring psychotherapy or psychiatric consultations, to the Professionally trained Counsellors within the Counselling Department.
The Peer Counsellors have undergone special training and are required to work under close supervision of professional counsellors. They are eminently trained to assist and guide their peers who are faced with normal challenges of life, before they develop into more serious issues.
