Seoul City Offers Free One-on-One In-Depth Mental Health Counseling for Youth... Recruiting 1,000 Participants

Free Support for 7 Basic In-depth Counseling Sessions After Matching with a Dedicated Youth Professional Counselor

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 2nd that it will implement a one-on-one in-depth counseling support project for youth mental health (Maeumitda) to care for the mental health of young people.

Recruitment and selection of participants will be conducted twice a year. The first recruitment period is from the 5th to the 14th until 6 p.m., and applications can be submitted through the Seoul Youth Portal. This recruitment aims to select 1,000 participants.

The final selected participants will receive seven free basic sessions of one-on-one in-depth mental health counseling, with anonymity and confidentiality guaranteed. In addition to the one-on-one counseling, Seoul plans to expand the support system by linking local resources according to the stages of youth mental health, providing support ranging from light daily concerns counseling to group counseling and self-help meetings.

The Seoul Youth Mental Health (Maeumitda) support project has shown significant effects in psychological and emotional recovery and satisfaction. According to an analysis survey of a total of 3,309 final participants last year, 94% responded that "the counseling was very helpful," and 81% answered that they "felt emotionally better."

Jo Wan-seok, head of the Seoul Youth Bureau, said, "Due to COVID-19 issues, employment crises, and restrictions on social activities, especially young people are experiencing mental health problems such as depression and isolation," adding, "Seoul is lowering the barriers for youth to participate in in-depth counseling and is building a support system to provide assistance close to their living areas."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.