As the year 2021 progresses, one of the unprecedented events that have been taking place within Malaysia is the family issues due to the Movement Control Order (MCO). To shed light on the urgency of this matter, Taylor’s Psych Society, in collaboration with Erican’s Psychology Club and The Centre of Counselling Services (CCS) at Taylor’s University, a webinar was held on 11 May 2021 to highlight the family issues and how participants can cope or help others with similar issues during the pandemic.
A comprehensive discussion was held on Zoom with questions submitted by participants to create a more inclusive session with them. Three panel speakers were invited for this event, they were Mr. Evan Kok Choon Foong, Senior University Counsellor for the Centre for Counselling Services (CCS) at Taylor’s University, Ms. Giney Chan Hui Zhi, Head of Psychology Programme for the Faculty of Business Information and Science at Erican College and Ms. Patrina Ganesan, Lecturer and Registered Counsellor at Taylor’s University.
Some of the key points mentioned by each speaker included the art of communicating with family members, which was explained by Mr. Evan as being able to stay calm, cool and collected while maintaining openness in order to promote healthy communication among family members. Ms. Giney, on the other hand, emphasised on the importance of regulating both positive and negative emotions. Last but not least, although most children who live with abusive parental figures are at risk of possibly turning into these abusive figures themselves, Ms. Patrina Ganesan had explained how staying conscious of one’s own thought processes may help in unlearning such harmful behaviours modeled by these figures.
Due to the insightful discussion and answers provided by the panel speakers, the number of questions submitted by participants increased consistently throughout the session, which was also an inspiring sight as it meant that the participants were willing to speak up about their struggles. The webinar achieved 120 registrations and 100 attendees, with most of them from the members of the public.
Thankfully, the webinar received positive feedback and the participants particularly enjoyed how detailed each question was addressed by the speakers. Striving to provide more knowledge on topics such as this, participants can expect to have more upcoming webinars by Taylor’s Psych Society and Erican Psychology Club respectively!