Rehabilitation counselling is one of the newer specialist fields within counselling.
Among the difficulties people face is living with a serious, hard-to-treat or chronic illness or physical disability, such as cancer, MS, diabetes and various disabilities. When someone develops one of these conditions, both they and their family do everything they can to have it treated, or to lessen its effects and complications. To that end they turn to many specialties — physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, endocrinology, paediatrics and so on. Yet one side of the story is usually overlooked: the person who has fallen ill is going to live with their illness.
Chronic and hard-to-treat illnesses also have psychological effects. Often, when a person truly realises that their physical health is not what it was, that it will not be cured, or that treatment will be long or even life-threatening, they may face
difficulties such as depression, anxiety, loss of motivation, a crisis of meaning in life, and a serious fear of death and of their time running out.
Dr Shadi Nowruzali, general practitioner, PhD candidate in rehabilitation counselling and counsellor at Moeen Counselling Centre