A two-day national webinar on ‘Promoting Career Prospects in the Field of Psychology’ organised by the Rajiv Gandhi University’s (RGU) department of psychology got underway at Rono Hills on Tuesday.

Addressing the participants during the inaugural session, RGU vice-chancellor Saket Kushwaha stressed on taking challenges as an opportunity during this pandemic and maintaining dynamism instead of being stagnant at a particular point in life.

He urged the participants to overcome every challenge and turn them into beautiful possibilities in life.

RGU’s pro-vice-chancellor Amitava Mitra said career counselling is the process of understanding and assessing another individual’s strength, concerns, interest and capabilities needed to guide toward one’s right path.

Defining psychology, he said it is the study of mind and behaviour and involves science as well as social sciences and has applications in all walks of life, work, family, relationships, sports and industry.

He emphasised on the importance of mental health practice as a career prospect in psychology.

Registrar Tomo Riba said with the increasing mental health crisis in the society due to COVID-19, the role of psychologists becomes imperative in the promotion of healthy behaviour and improving quality of life for those who are suffering from mental illness.

The first technical session of the day was delivered by Aakanksha Bhatia, career counsellor and visiting faculty at Aditi Mahavidyalaya in New Delhi, on ‘Career Pathways in Psychology’.

She highlighted all the possible career prospects, the required qualifications along with the best institutions providing the aforementioned courses in India as well as abroad.

In the second technical session Vibha Deshpande, counselling psychologist and founder-director of Pune-based Tailwinds, deliberated on ‘Developing career as a Counselling Psychologist/Psychotherapist’.

Apart from the topic, she elaborated on the significance of tele-counselling and its effectiveness in the ongoing crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 400 participants registered and attended the programme via Google Meet Hangout and Facebook Live.

Leeyir Ete, the co-coordinator of the programme thanked the VC, PVC, registrar and Professor Kesang Degi for their continued support and motivation.

She also lauded organisers Yuma Narah, Jomyir Bagra and Haj Bincee for conceptualising the webinar on promoting various career prospects in the field of psychology.

Earlier, the welcome address was delivered by Kakali Goswami, co-ordinator of the webinar and head (in-charge) of Psychology, RGU.

The webinar has been organised in collaboration with the Psychosocial Support Group, Arunachal Pradesh.