Case 2:    Tabib                                                              for the student

Who are you?

You are Tabib and you are 23 years old. This is the 3^rd year of your study. You are a somewhat shy boy, always motivated for the study and you are a clever student.

Last year the whole year you were not able to study because of a severe depression.

You have got a psychiatric treatment and still you have to use medicines. But now you work fully again. Thanks to the therapy and medicines everything goes better now though in your view you have got less energy and more trouble to take the study stuff well.

But recently you are doing more badly. You main troubles are: starting up studying and concentration during studying. You are not always feeling quite well and sometimes gloomy, dejected thoughts are troubling you. You missed a number of lectures because you could not settle down to them for a moment.

Because of all this you didn’t pass some exams (yet). In the mean time in your view it is very important to round off your study and to obtain high grades. You are fed up (sick and tired) with the fact that you are not doing as well as you wished. Consequently you are building up pretty much extra stress and even you started to have doubts about your talents. You use more and more time studying but it not always appears to be productive used time.

You are proud of the fact that after your depression you are now studying again though you are a bit ashamed of the depression itself. A few fellow students know about your depression but nobody else in the institute knows anything about it. In your view it is a private problem that you alone can and have to solve. If you need help with your depression you always go to a professional outside the educational institute. Besides you expect that other people think that you are pitiful and strange when you tell them that you have been depressive.

You have got a sideline job for 6 hours weekly in a store and you play football.

What does the counsellor know or have seen or heard about you?

Tabib is a kind and somewhat shy boy, 23 years of age. This is the 3^rd year of his study. He always has been motivated for the study and a very clever student.

Last year he was not able to study for some reason during the whole year, but now he works fully again. Recently the products of his study decreased in quality. He also missed a number of lectures and failed at some exams.

In the classroom he seems to be uninterested occasionally.

The conversation

As a reason for missing lectures and lower grades you tell that you are very busy with your sideline job. You can also say that you should use some more time for your study.

You still like your study very much and if somebody says (s)he doubt about your effort, interest and/or motivation, you react rather piqued (angry). You are simply tired sometimes (for instance because of your sideline job).

You tell that everything will turn out to be all right again with your study and from time to time you refer to the period before you dropt out for a year. After all during that period everything went all right too, didn’t it?

You don’t want to dwell on the period of dropping out. You only will add that you were ill during that time, no more. So you don’t want to talk about your depression.

Mostly you’d like to end this conversation as soon as possible.

Case 2:    Tabib                                                  for: student counsellor

What have you seen or heard?

Tabib is a kind and somewhat shy boy, 23 years of age. This is the 3^rd year of his study. He always has been motivated for the study and a very clever student.

Last year he was not able to study for some reason during the whole year, but now he works fully again.

Recently the products of his study decreased in quality. He also missed a number of lectures and failed at some exams.

In the classroom he seems to be uninterested occasionally.

In your role as a student counsellor you ought to have short conversations with all students about the study progress. Have your conversation with Tabib in the way you usually do. You wonder what is the matter.