The following training was conducted to counsel parents regarding how stress could be handled in more appropriate ways.

Swayam had organized workshop on Parenting and Stress Management for parents of special kids.

Topics included introduction to stress, common factors inducing stress, how day to day events induce stress and ways to manage it by changing our way of thinking about the situation.

The training was conducted by Senior Psychologist and Founder of Institute for psychological health, Thane, Dr Shubha Thatte.

The workshop started with Dr. Thatte explaining what is stress and how simple day today events give rise to stress.

If we have less money or if we get more guests than expected for lunch, immediately stress mounts up. If someone says something about our child or just gives stared looks to the special kid, feelings of uneasiness and anxiety start gathering in parents of special kids. This is natural defense strategy of the mind to deal with the situation, but we need to face the situation with courage.

Dr. Thatte explained that each person needs to create a place / person where they can pour their heart out (Catharsis). This could be relative/ friend /therapist/ parents coming to rehabilitation center but finding such a place is important and stressful events should not be held up to oneself only. She mentioned that coming to rehabilitation center like Swayam was a great source for parents to release their tension by discussing it with parents going through the same situation.

Dr. Thatte gave example of a school teacher who had taught lessons of virtues to many students. Her students did well in life and many times visited her to pay respect for the values she had taught them. But her own son could not inculcate those values unfortunately and went on wrong path of attaining wealth by unfair means. Dr. Thatte illustrated by these examples to parents, that it is in our hands what we teach the kids and efforts done by us, but the outcome is not in our hands. So do not worry about or have set expectations about what your child needs to achieve in a period of time once you enroll him/her in therapy.

The session closed with question-answer session where Dr. Thatte answered queries from parents. It was very interactive session where parents came up with various queries like their children want to get married or have age specific urges, mother cannot sleep at night due to undue tension about the well-being of the child etc. Dr. Thatte answered all the queries and provided valuable guidance to parents.