Counselling Corner newsletter – March 2022
We hope our newsletter helps a bit to mentally support colleagues, family and friends. During this challenging period we are open from Monday till Saturday (and Sunday’s on request) and operating online through Zoom application or face to face at our counselling centre on Bogalay Zay Street. Please do contact us if you need any help or have questions.
Self-harm: What is it, what triggers it and how to deal with it?
Self-harm is when someone intentionally hurts themselves physically. It is a way of taking emotional or ‘unreachable’ pain and making it into something real – turning it into an external thing that is tangible and controllable.
When it comes to self-harm, we need to know that
- It’s not an accident
- It’s not about getting attention
- Anyone can do it
- It’s more mental than physical
- It’s not necessarily about suicide
Whatever the reason, self-harm is normally a sign that a person is feeling intense emotional pain and distress. Using self-harm as a coping tool can be so dangerous as it can lead to serious injury and even accidental death.
That’s why raising awareness about self-injury is incredibly important. Awareness leads to understanding and empathy, banishing judgment and fear, and reducing the number of people who feel alone and suffer in silence.
There are self-harm in many forms and in order to know more about them and how we can help someone who is self-harming, you can watch our Tuesday lives here at Facebook.
Employee Assistance program
An employee assistance program (EAP) is a work-based service designed to assist employees in resolving personal problems that may be affecting the employee’s performance in a negative way. The aim is to ensure each staff member is mentally strong to do their job at work, despite other external factors that might cause stress, concentration problems, anxiety, sleeplessness, mood swings and easily becoming irritated.
General knowledge on mental well-being is limited and many stigmas still exist about mental health so also educating all staff about the import
ance of mental well-being is very important. Myanmar employees are generally reluctant to call for individual help for themselves but they are very open to talk about emotions and feelings in a group setting.
For Myanmar companies we started an EAP program focussed on Myanmar staff and Myanmar needs. The program includes webinars as well as group and individual sessions and are costs effective (starting from 4 Usd / staff member). Counselling Corner offers 3 categories:
Get in touch with us to verify what you can do for your Myanmar staff to stay mentally strong.
Instead of going to a meditation centre during Thingyan
Traditionally Thingyan is the period to go on a holiday or spend time at a meditation centre; both good ways to de-stress. This year, Counselling Corner is offering a 2-days workshop during Thingyan that focusses on 2 topics:
- What is stress, why can it be bad for you and how to get re-motivated again and deal with stress
- How to help your family and friends to deal with stress and improve their well-being.
The workshop is partly an investment in your own well-being and also enables you to support others.
Workshop dates: Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 April 2022
Time: 4 – 6 pm
Location: online through Zoom
Fees: 40.000 Kyats per person
Limited seats available so sign up here
Top 10 things to do to stay mentally healthy
Prevention and staying mentally healthy is a big part of the work we do at Counselling Corner. Together with our team of psychotherapists and counsellors, we have spent a lot of time to come up with very practical advice on how to stay mentally strong. This resulted 10 very practical self-care tips that are free and easy to practise anywhere in Myanmar.
We are currently in the process of creating illustrations and working on the final designs and will then print them on vinyl posters (2 * 4 feet) for factories and companies to hang at their staff canteen and encourage their staff or their family members to use these tips to stay mentally strong.
Are you interested to pre-order some of these posters with your company logo? Get in touch!
Trauma 5 days’ workshop
Do you have flashbacks of violence, troubles sleeping or suddenly feel very sad, angry or helpless? Then this workshop could be good for you.
Counselling Corner is organising a trauma group workshop for people who have been exposed to traumatic events including violence, stressful situations and shock. This could be something you have witnessed yourself or because you heard or saw many stories and pictures from others (vicarious trauma).
During the trauma workshop we work in a small group of maximum 10 persons to go through the past traumatic experiences through reflection and essays. The counsellor then helps clients to process this trauma by sharing how you feel, give the emotions a place in your head and then move on. Working in a peer group is very powerful as emotions are shared and the effectiveness of the workshop is multiplied. A buddy system is used to support self- care for mental well-being.
Workshop Details:
Date: Monday 25 April – Friday 29 April 2022
Time: daily from 4 – 7 pm
Minimum 2 – Maximum 10 participants
Language: Myanmar
Fees: 150.000 Kyats per person (sliding scale fees available)
Location: online through Zoom
We are looking for cooperation with INGO’s, local clinics, civil society groups and other humanitarian organisations who can help identifying people who experienced traumatic events and have since then health issues.
Please do share / like and contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on the above or want to know more about our services. We want to make it easier for people to talk about mental well-being and we need help for all organisations in Myanmar to discuss mental well-being openly with your team and work on improving it.
For enquiries please contact us:
Email : info@counsellingcornermyanmar.com
Phone: 09 785 074 173, 09 784 509 916