ENSURING THE MENTAL WELL-BEING OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF MICHAEL OKPARA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE THROUGH TRAUMA- INFORMED COUNSELING TAPPING TECHNIQUES (TICTT)

Trauma-Informed counselling is the help given to clients understand where their behaviour is coming from, by explaining trauma effects on the brain and emotional regulation.The period of child-hood and adolescent stages are critical to the growth in terms of mental reasoning and health development of the child.A total of 40 traumatised first-year students in the Faculty of Education were sampled and the study used quasi-experimental design carried out using pre-test and post-test techniques.Undergraduate students selected were divided into two groups: the experimental group and the control group.The experimental group treated with "School-based Trauma-Informed Counselling Tapping Techniques (TICTT), and no interventions given to the control group.The researcher administered Traumatic Stress Disorder Questionnaire (TSDQ) to both the experimental and control groups before and after the intervention.However, the experimental group received TICTT (emotional freedom technique or alternative treatment for physical pain and emotional distress).The researcher administered TSDQ to the two groups (the numbers re-arranged at posttest); scores obtained at pre-test and post-test in experimental and control groups recorded.The researcher calculated the difference in percentages between the pre-test and post-test.The result indicated that trauma-informed counselling, using Tapping Techniques (TICTT), improve the mental well-being of undergraduate students by 28%.The researcher recommended that solid and loving relationships should exist among parents, teachers and relatives of the traumatised.