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COPING WITH TRANSITION

Most of the problematic issues that are causing disturbances among people living in this twenty-first century are related to transitional challenges. All aspects of human growth including; changing from one employer to another, shift from one town to another, moving from one level of education to another, moving from unemployment to employment, change of income, change from singlehood to marriage, divorce, loss of a loved one, change of health condition and rites of passage involve transitions that have to be negotiated for any human being to live effectively. Transition is not only a period of changing from one state to another but also the changes that must occur in an individual as part of the process as they leave an earlier state to a new one. In considering the rites of passage, Charles-Arnold Kurr van Gennep in 1909 introduced the concept of "liminality" to describe the time in which people are on the threshold of entering a new phase in their lives, having left the previous one behind Ceremonies marking this transition were seen to enable people to experience this liminal phase, losing and then recreating their identity. Failure to cope well with challenges at this stage leads to acquisition of psychological disturbance which manifest through maladaptive behaviours and malfunctions.

Transition is the stage Between Separation from a person’s normal routine and incorporation of a new one whereby individuals. Parting with a lifestyle in order to adopt a new way of living at this stage requires support for us to successfully integrate new experiences and knowledge into our lives. Traditional way of managing transition involved rituals that were performed to prepare initiates move from one rite of passage to another. All members of the community played their role in ensuring that children grew up behaving in a way consistent with societal standards. Children at puberty would be taught on how to adopt adult roles and keep adult to adult relationships with their parents and other adults in the society. Marriage arrangements were done in a way that communicated clearly, the responsibility of partners to each other and boundaries of interactions with various members of the community were defined. The elderly were taken care of by their family members. The cohesiveness of communities enhanced easier management of challenges associated with transition from one stage to another.

Today, professional consultation, beside religious guidance, is considered when managing transitional challenges. Religious leaders play an active role of giving guidance and mentorship to members of their groups. Now that there are diverse religious values and beliefs that determine the application of skills and knowledge to solve most of these issues, unification of approaches has not been possible. These appeals for a professional type of help that will act as an extra hand to help people effectively express and solve their issues. Every person need to discover the mission residing in them and resources in them they can use to fulfill this mission. The most suitable back up available in our society is psychological counseling.

KIBCo is one of the prominent institutions in Kenya offering important services and trainings such as; Marriage and family therapy, trauma counseling, drug and substance abuse counseling, Loss and grief counseling, medical conditions counseling, workplace counseling, Guidance and Counseling and child and adolescent therapy to enable individuals tackle various transitional challenges effectively.



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