The Power of Hope

To promote the importance of hope in pursuing a meaningful and happier lifestyle, the Department of Student Affairs Counselling Guidance Unit organised the Counselling and Wellness Week (CWW) 2017 from 6 to 8 June 2017 at Sungai Long Campus.

By using ‘The Power of Hope’ as the theme for CWW 2017, the event also aimed to introduce the ripple effect of hope on subjective well-being in daily life and to suggest different approaches toward fulfilling outcomes based on the modification of thinking and behavioural patterns through talks, games and hands-on experiential activities. Through CCW 2017, the participants learnt psychoeducation and acquired knowledge to customise their strengths when facing life challenges. The participants also took part in game activities, exhibitions and workshops to understand more about the power of hope.

Complementing the booth activities were a series of counselling talks, including “Getting Know about Gambling” by David Liong Sze Kit, “Understand Suicide and Learn How to Help” by Ng Kai Lin, and “The Power of Hope” by Vincent Leong and Dr Wendy Yee Mei Tien.

Liong is a counsellor and a lecturer in Gambler Rehab Center Malaysia. He educated the participants about the mystification of gambles, addiction, harms and troubles of gambling. He also introduced some treatments to overcome gambler’s addiction problem during the talk.

Suicide is one of the major problems among the teenagers nowadays, and that is the main concern of Ng Kai Lin, an expert in guidance and counselling psychology. Ng introduced the myths of suicide to the participants and taught them on how to detect the signs of suicide. Ng said, “A suicidal person may not ask for help, but that doesn’t mean that help isn’t wanted. If you think a friend or family member is considering suicide, you might be afraid to bring up the subject, but talking openly about suicidal thoughts and feelings can actually save a life.”

Believing in the potential of each individual in contributing to the industry, Vincent serves as a trainer for Wholesome training, conducting Wholesome Attitude Programmes (WAP) which uses Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to change one’s behaviour for insurance and property agency. He said, “Life as we know it always has its perks; we tend to deviate whenever we face a problem. The passion we have can extinguish in those circumstances.”

Senior lecturer of Ethnic Relations at the University of Malaya, Dr Yee emphasised on youth development and empowerment by sharing life stories of some notabilities. She covered issues on inter-ethnic relations, youth identities and youth intercultural communication.

From left: Liong, Ng, Leong and Dr Yee

Students getting information from the Gambler Rehab Center booth

Participants writing their wishes on a paper and folding it into an origami

The organiser prepared balloons written with positive life goals and invited the students to fish up the balloons

Student participating in the “Hunt the Hope Killer” game

Participants put up their wishes on the board