Disability Counselling

Invisible minority

One in four New Zealanders report some form of disability - over 1 million people. A disability can be any physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional or developmental condition that hampers or reduces a person’s ability to carry out everyday tasks. A disability can be present at birth or occur later in life, depending on the nature of the condition.

Psychological impacts

One of the least recognised aspects of disability is the psychological impact. For those who acquire a disability, it's often difficult to adjust to life when the way you do things and the way you feel about yourself has changed. Even for those who have lived with disability since birth, each new phase of life brings new challenges.

Living with a disability can teach you a lot about life, about yourself as a person and about how resourceful you are. At times being disabled may feel unfair and you may have to face many obstacles physically and emotionally, overcome frustration, isolation and loneliness, and it can be hard to remain positive when you have to overcome things each and every day.

Often it is assumed that disability is a problem for impaired individuals, and that it is the disability that causes emotional or psychological problems. However more often than not, it is the challenges of the physical and social environment, and not the impairment that causes emotional difficulties.

Family impacts

Having a family member with a disability can have an effect on the entire family; the parents, siblings, and extended family members. It is a unique shared experience for families and can affect all aspects of family functioning.

Families living and caring for a person with disability experience both positive and negative impacts. Disability can bring about a sense of cohesion and closeness within the family and community as awareness on how to cope with disability increases. But disability can also be a source of family strain between spouses and also between parents and children because of the psychological and emotional strains that disability can bring about.

This strain may be increased by the burden of dealing with people in the community whose attitudes are unhelpful, and with communities where there is a lack of programs, facilities, and resources that allow for the full inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Head or brain injury

The psychological impacts of traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be particularly insidious. The impacts can be many an varied including mood changes, emotional deregulation (anger, depression, anxiety), PTSD, personality changes, libido changes, self-image and identity, etc. Such injuries effect huge numbers of people as a result of concussions from car accidents, falls, assaults etc as well as vascular events such as strokes or aneurisms or brain surgery.

It can be very difficult to untangle the direct impacts of brain damage from the psychological impacts. While rehabilitation issues are best left with experienced neurologists and neuropsychologists, therapy can help with the boarder challenges of life including emotional, psychosocial and relationship issues.