2nd Year Counseling Students

One of my most enjoyable activities is working with the second year students in the health science university counseling program. This is a four year Bachelor level program introducing the profession of counseling to Bhutan for the first time. The first graduating class matriculated this year. The students are young, bright and eager to learn. Quiet by nature and deferential to age and authority by culture, the students require some prompting to speak up and to assert themselves, some more than others, and to learn that respecting the privacy of their clients is not incompatible with obtaining a thorough history. This ability should grow as their confidence does but practicing interviewing skills seems to be helping. Combining the teaching of psychopathology and of interviewing skills, I assign each student an illness to research and portray while another completes an interview in “what’s my diagnosis.” Some of them are born actors and do a wonderful job. Afterwards we critique the interview, discussing what went well, what needs improvement and what obstacles they faced in the interview. With a novice’s tendency to “go by the book,” we’ve needed to review the nature of a therapeutic relationship and the importance of establishing it in the first interview.

Language can, of course, prove an obstacle. Dzongkha (“the language of the Dzong”) has been the official language of Bhutan since 1971. Spoken by the peoples of western Bhutan, it is the first language of only a minority of Bhutanese, the remainder speaking one of the eighteen other recognized languages. Dzongka is the native language of only one of the six students.

When the students are ultimately placed for employment, there is a fair chance it will be in an area of Bhutan where the native language is different than their own. Quite a challenge, no doubt.

Left to Right: Name Birthplace Mother language

Rinchen Dawa Dagana Khengkha

Kven Long Dorji Sandrup Jongkhag Sharchop

Dema Dema Haa Dzongkha

Tshering Choden Trashigang Sharchop

Tashi Yangzom Trashigang Sharchop

Jamyang Suigye Khamsum Pemagatshel Sharchop

A bit stiff in the picture, be assured they do smile, and often. I owe a debt of gratitude to these fine young people for adding immensely to the joy of my time in Bhutan.

To those of you who contributed to our trip at http://www.mightycause.com/story/bhutan, the students and administrators express their sincere gratitude for the many textbooks Margaret and I were able to purchase for their library.