Young people live with concerns. They worry about their loves, grades, futures and feel the difficulties of human relationships. They really need and want some advice or to be taken into someones? confidence, but it is difficult for them to do these in this tough and heartless world. Also, at some point, people think that visiting counselors is a last resort and should be done only when they have serious problems or worries. However, there is someone who offers help and shows his sympathy by counseling based on similar experiences he has gone through. His name is Jang Jae-yeol from the non-profit organization called “The Big Sisters.” The Argus heard why he founded this organization and his message for HUFSans.

The Argus: Hello, please introduce yourself and “The Big Sisters.”
Jang Jae-yeol (Jang): Hello, my name is Jang Jae-yeol. I am the CEO of The Big Sisters and also work as an essay writer. The Big Sisters is a three-year-old non-profit organization where nine sisters and brothers in their thirties, all possessing different characteristics and jobs, consult people in their twenties for free as a form of a talent donation platform.

The Argus: What made you found The Big Sisters?
Jang: I developed a depressive disorder while I was working in my twenties, so I quit my job and visited a mental hospital. The doctor advised me to create a blog where I could upload my worries and answer them from a different point of view with using a different ID. However, people who visited my blog did not know that the person with the worries and the person who answered them were both me and kept asking for advice about their worries. At first, I thought my depressive disorder was a big deal, but I later found that there were a lot of people who suffer from similar issues. However, while answering questions, I found that, for some questions, one person who suffered from similar problems gave more helpful advice and sympathized better than I did. Then I recognized that counselors having similar experiences as those they help can be very effective, but I felt limited answering everyone by myself. Therefore, I decided to create a platform called The Big Sisters and hired people with various backgrounds and experiences.

The Argus: Is there any special reason you named the counseling community The Big Sisters?
Jang: I never revealed my personal information while I was running the blog. However, people who consulted thought of me as a big sister, like the Korean pop star Jessie, after I provided information that I smoke, study art and once worked as a designer. They all called me “sister.” So I made this character my persona and I added an “s” to sister as I gathered the people who are with me.

The Argus: How does the counseling happen?
Jang: Basically, when young people upload their worries, we leave their messages for a period of a week in order to give them a chance to arrange their thoughts once again and prevent them from becoming too dependent. We meet them not only online, but offline as well. We recruit offline counselors through an application process. Offline group counseling is held on the first Saturday of every month. We also have offline counseling sessions once during either the first half or the second half of the year in a traditional Korean house or temple. Besides these services, when a welfare foundation or a government organization suggests a cooperative project for the youth, we conduct programs that can help young people. Moreover, we publish a webtoon about a representative counseling case serial on Naver, a Korean portal site, once a week.

The Argus: Who normally conducts the counseling?
Jang: All sisters in our organization have received counseling from me while I was running my personal blog. They gathered together to pay it forward by helping others. All of them have different backgrounds, experiences and careers. Among them, there is only one sister who has earned an actual doctoral degree in counseling. Some people pose questions that have little to do with the profession of counseling. This happens because many people think psychological counseling and agony counseling are the same. In fact, they are clearly different. Unlike psychological counseling, which is for people who suffer from mental disorders, agony counseling pertains to daily worries. I believe that there is no expert in agony counseling. However, in order to avoid mistakes as non-professionals, we are trying to study basic knowledge about psychological counseling and earn associated private certificates.

The Argus: What worries do young people who visit the organization usually have?
Jang: In 2013, when I just started the blog, most people had worries concerning their employment or their lives at work. In 2014, when the online blog slowly became popular, people began to ask about their love lives. I guess it was because of the name “sister.” From 2015, when we conducted a cooperative project with the government, people with serious worries, such as problems with self-esteem, began to visit our organization. In addition to this, taking advantage of the anonymity of the website, people with worries that would attract the negative eyes of society, such as sexual minorities related issues, also started to visit us. As we talk with them, we feel pity that we are the only window through which they can express their worries.

The Argus: Do you feel any limitations of counseling when talking with your consultants?
Jang: Some reasons for the concerns that we hear are not problems of the youth, but rather the problems of society. These types of problems cannot be solved through counseling so we feel a definite limitation. That is why we not only run a counseling center, but also work as social activists. One of the projects that we have conducted is called “Let us introduce The Big Sisters’ friend.” It is a program that introduces a group that does similar activities as we do but can give more professional help to certain people who have certain worries. At this point, there are 12 groups, such as “Brave Cupcake” that helps single mothers. They are helping us overcome our limitations as counselors.

The Argus: Do you have any principles you follow when managing your organization?
Jang: First of all, we do not make decisions for the client because, from a long-term point of view, we want the client to be independent when deciding something. Next, we clearly distinguish the difference between agony counseling and psychological counseling so that we can induce people who need psychological counseling to visit a hospital. Personally, when running the counseling center, I manage it like a radical non-commercial organization. Also I try to ensure that our sisters do not feel too stressed or tired.

The Argus: Do you have any memorable counseling experiences?
Jang: There was a man who now works in Japan, and he once received counseling regarding his search for a job. In 2014, he got a job, but he came back to me and said he wanted to quit his job because it was not as he had imagined. As a person with a similar experience, I recommended him to reconsider this action more deeply. One year after the counseling, he came back and said that he had submitted his resignation and was planning on going to Japan. He was full of confidence. He also consulted others who suffered from similar problems. Watching him help others repay the assistance that we gave him was very meaningful. Also, when he sometimes invites me to Japan, I feel as if I am his real sister.

The Argus: What do you do when you have worries?
Jang: When I have worries, I get them off my chest and talk to someone like our organization?s members. Unlike the popular belief that counseling is only effective when being conducted by older people, I frequently get helpful advice from younger people as well. I think there is no age limitations in agony counseling. I hope many Korean people can express their worries to others.

The Argus: What are your future plans?
Jang: As a representative of the organization, I plan to run it for at least ten more years. In ten years, I hope the organization for free agony counseling can grow. I will try my best to be a role model for similar work. Also I will monitor myself so as not to become negligent.

The Argus: Do you have anything to say to young people who suffer from various problems?
Jang: These days, young people feel anxious because they do not have something they want to do or they do not have something they are good at. However, I want to ask them whether we really have to have something we really want to do or something we are good at. I graduated from a college of fine arts, but I am not putting my major to work and I have not even imagined doing this type of job. However, I am still happy with my life. Please do not be impatient. Concentrate on finding who you are.

Jang Jae-yeol dreams of a society where anyone can tell their worries or can give advice. Yet many Koreans still think of counseling as a serious and heavy issue and are reluctant to share their worries. Jang wants the youth to be free from their concerning issues and find their egos while telling their worries to others. Like he said, let us be people who can freely talk about our worries as well as people who can be all ears to the worries of others.

Reporter of National Section