“We all need a safe place”: As mental health needs grow, these faith-based counsellors want to make a difference

Nearly one in five people in Singapore struggles with their mental health.

This is up from a little more than one in 10 in 2022, according to the National Population Health Survey released in the last quarter of 2023.

“Low sense of self is very prevalent. When people start to feel worthless, there would be a loss of self-confidence and it would permeate every area of their life – work, relationships,” says Yap Siew Ling, Lead Counsellor at Wesley Counselling Services, the social outreach arm of Wesley Methodist Church.

Dr Kenny Tan, Board Chairman of Eagles Mediation & Counselling Centre adds that many in their 30s and 40s face stress and anxiety. “EMCC interviewed folks in the streets. The younger people are not shy about sharing that they have mental health issues.”

No wonder our country’s National Medical Research Council has identified mental health as one of the seven areas of national priorities for research.

The government also formed the Inter-agency Taskforce on Mental Health and Well-Being in 2021 and launched the National Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy the following year.

Additionally, there are plans to increase the pool of public sector psychiatrists and psychologists, as well as frontline personnel and volunteers trained in psychological first aid. 

Against the backdrop of this pressing issue, how has the Church offered a balm for wounded souls?

Free counselling: Wesley Counselling Services

Wesley Counselling Services (WCS) has been offering pro bono counselling services for over three decades. “We are Christian counsellors, we are faith-based. Our Christian values define us,” says Siew Ling.

Its team, comprising three full-time counsellors, a ministry co-ordinator and up to 30 trained volunteer counsellors from various churches, counsel clients 13 years old and older.

About 75% of WCS’ counsellors are female, which matches the profile of the majority of their clients. Counsellors and clients are matched according to gender, the client’s presenting issues, their background and life stage, she adds.

While the counsellors deal with all kinds of issues like marital and family troubles, mental health challenges, addictions, grief management, stress-related concerns and self-esteem problems, each has a specialty.

“I’ve discovered that I’m particularly good with young adults, young women starting out in their careers. It has been quite a joy working with them to help them,” says Siew Ling.

Through her experience as a counsellor, she has learnt the importance of being curious and having empathy.

“And you really must hope. God is still sovereign. God is still in control no matter how difficult the circumstances. When clients don’t come back and you don’t know what happened, God is still in control.”

Support for counsellors

Being a counsellor can be lonely as one cannot talk about one’s work due to confidentiality. This is why meeting together as a community every fortnight for clinical supervision is so important, says Siew Ling.

“The group supervision allows the lay counsellors to seek supervision for issues pertaining to their cases so that they can better help their clients.

“It also serves as a platform for them to reflect and talk about their feelings and how the client’s issue could be affecting them. It’s a form of self-care, a form of emotional support for some people.”

The WCS team of volunteer and full-time counsellors, taken in 2022. Photo courtesy of Yap Siew Ling.

She adds that she has been inspired by her community of counsellors: “One of our counsellors looks after a mother with dementia. Another has cancer but she still comes in and serves … The support is amazing when you have a like-minded community.”

Resourcing other churches

WCS hopes to teach other churches to replicate what they do so that more people can be served, says Siew Ling.

Sharing their training model, she said that lay people learn about the basics of Christian counselling through the Counselling Skills for Personal Development and Ministry course, which takes place over six weeks each year.

“From that, we handpick five to 10 to join us as volunteer counsellors. They then go through 12 weeks of a Lay Counselling course to make sure they are equipped to help our clients.”

WCS also runs a course, How to Start a Lay Counselling Ministry Workshop, for churches which was first introduced by Siew Ling’s predecessor, Tony Ting, who helmed WCS for about 25 years.

Once a month, their trained volunteer counsellors go through further training for their professional development. In addition, there is an annual retreat where they get to deepen their skills.

The WCS model has been used to train lay counsellors in the Chinese Annual Conference (CAC) of The Methodist Church in Singapore.

“It is our dream that every church starts a lay counselling ministry,” says Siew Ling.

Making counselling mainstream

At Eagles Mediation & Counselling Centre (EMCC), Christian counselling is taking a new turn.

The hope is to make counselling mainstream rather than sessional. “Do we have to wait for people to reach the edge before we say, ‘Come for counselling?’” asks Dr Tan, the Board Chairman.

Explaining the difference, he says that sessional counselling is when “I have a problem, I look for help, I need it fixed. It’s a reactive kind of counselling”.

Approached this way, there is a negative impression that counselling is only for someone who is struggling.

Dr Kenny Tan. Photo from the EMCC website.

On the other hand, mainstream counselling strives to provide one with a “sojourner to walk you through the various seasons of life”, offering life skills before one embarks on certain milestones, says Dr Tan.

“So when you come to us, it is not because you are weak psychologically, mentally or emotionally. You just need some advice, someone to listen to you.

“It’s about being pre-emptive, creating resilience before you crack. I mean, you do pre-marital counselling. So why not pre-schooling counselling, pre-National Service counselling, pre-working counselling?

“The whole idea of having companions in life is so lacking in the world. We all need somebody or a safe place that we can go to, to discover handles to life in a Biblical manner.”

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