Teacher: an incidental counsellor

Imagine you are walking in class corridors during lunch time and  you see one student, who was very active and cheerful a few days back, is sitting all alone in his class eating his lunch silently. As a teacher, what will you do in this situation? Many of us in situations like these would be left flailing about how to help this student. As a teacher you will experience this situation quite often when you are concerned about a student's well being and you want to help him to achieve it but you don't know how? Here counseling psychology can be very helpful for you. This is the time where you should switch roles from being a teacher to being a counsellor for the students who are in difficult physical situations and mental conditions.  A smile, a greeting, a little supportive gesture from you may change a student's life. As teachers its very essential to realize that support and understanding is the core of the teaching and learning process so this is the time to extend our role boundaries for the welfare and well-being of our students.