by Father Godfrey D'sa
MUMBAI, JAN 23, 2015: Over 1000 students and parents in total from across 50 Mumbai-based schools attended a special series of seminars, in January 2016, organised by Prafulta Psychological Services to help 
people live life to the fullest.
The Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham – a 'Festival of Feelings'- was organised for the second straight year and was held at three Don Bosco institutes across Mumbai. 320 students from standards five to seven from 14 different schools attended the first event, on January 10, at Dominic Savio High School in Andheri. The students first sat in groups to draw, paint and write the feelings they experience.
A counsellor then helped them to first choose a difficult emotion like anger, fear or sadness. After feeling that emotion, they expressed it on paper. Along with one difficult emotion, they also got in touch with the feeling of 'joy' and again expressed it on paper. Students then attended a workshop on 'handling difficult emotions'. While the children were busy enjoying and learning about emotions, their parents had an hour's interaction with psychologists on 'Effective Parenting.'
514 students and their parents from nearly 20 schools attended the second event that was held at Don Bosco International School, in Matunga, on January 16. 200 students and parents from 15 schools participated in the final event that was held at Don Bosco School, Borivli on January 17.
The organisers, Prafulta Psychological Services, have been offering a variety of psychological services for the past 17 years and believe that by helping children understand how to handle their feelings, they would better cope with many real-life situations, especially in the tough times they live in today.
Anger and jealousy often leads to violence and not knowing how to cope with sadness makes children become reclusive. The series of events helped children deal with tough feelings and difficult situations. The programme gave parents a platform to voice their confusion and receive assistance from trained psychologists on how to handle issues related to children, especially problems related to the over-stimulation of the media and the competitive environment.