The Department of Psychology of Smt. Maniben M. P. Shah Women’s College of Arts and Commerce, Autonomous in association with the Student Council Wing of the Bombay Psychological Association hosted an intercollegiate workshop on “Revisiting Counselling and Practicing Basic Counselling Skills”.

The Department of Psychology at Smt. Maniben M. P. Shah Women’s College of Arts and Commerce, Autonomous in association with the Student Council Wing of the Bombay Psychological Association organised an intercollegiate workshop on “Revisiting Counselling and Practicing Basic Counselling Skills” held on 18th August 2023. The workshop took place at 2:00 pm and saw the participation of 19 enthusiastic Psychology students from the host college as well as colleges such as Maniben Nanavati Women’s College, Mithibai College, Smt. P.N. Doshi Women’s College, among others. Some practicing psychologists participated in the workshop as well. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Sushma Mehrotra, a consulting clinical psychologist and psychotherapist.

The esteemed guests, trainers and participants for the day were welcomed and felicitated by the In-charge Principal and Head of the Department, Dr. Archana Patki, followed by a formal welcome address given by Prof. Rupa Shah, former Vice Chancellor of S.N.D.T Women’s University. The college counsellor, Ms. Vedashree Bhagwat introduced the trainer, Dr. Mehrotra before the commencement of the workshop

Dr. Mehrotra began the workshop by specifying the objectives of the day and speaking about them briefly. Among many activities that she and her team conducted, the first activity was called a “Trust Walk” in which they paired the participants such that every pair had one person playing the role of a therapist and the other playing the role of a client. The “client” was blindfolded and the “therapist” had to guide them while taking a round of the floor. After the activity, Dr. Mehrotra helped the participants share and reflect on their experiences.

For the next activity, one person in the pair of participants was asked to be a “bad” therapist on purpose while the other person in the pair was the client. They were asked to conduct a mock session for sometime. After the activity, both the “therapists” and the “clients” were asked about their experience and they discussed the outcome of the exercise and Dr. Mehrotra debriefed them and explored effective and ineffective counselling skills.  

The final activity involved two different vignettes that were shown to the clients. The vignettes involved descriptions of a client and their presenting problem. The participants were divided into pairs and they were asked to take a mock session in which one participant acted like the client described and the other became the therapist. For the second vignette, the roles were reversed.  

Dr. Mehrotra made sure to check on every pair and guided them if they needed help. After the activity, the group discussed their reflections. This was followed by a Q and A session with the trainer and Ms. Vedashree Bhagwat closed the workshop with a formal vote of thanks.