Basic Personal Counselling

Part 1 THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF COUNSELLING 1. What is counselling? 2. The counselling relationship 3. Influence of the counsellor's values Part 1 Training group exercises Part 2 FOUNDATION SKILLS 4. Learning foundation skills 5. Joining and listening 6. Reflection of content (paraphrasing) 7. Reflection of feelings 8. Reflection of content and feelings 9. Use and misuse of questions 10. Summarizing 11. Matching language and metaphor 12. Creating comfortable closure Part 2 Training group exercises Part 3 PROMOTING CHANGE 13. Various approaches to counselling 14. Working collaboratively 15. An integrative approach to helping a person change 16. Combining skills to facilitate the change process Part 3 Training group exercises Part 4 ADDITIONAL SKILLS FOR PROMOTING CHANGE 17. Normalizing 18. Using the 'here and now' experience 19. Confrontation 20. Challenging unhelpful beliefs 21. Externalizing 22. Solution-focused counselling skills 23. Exploring polarities 24. Reframing 25. Making decisions 26. Facilitating action 27. Experiential counselling skills 28. Facilitating relaxation Part 4 Training group exercises Part 5 COMMON THEMES IN COUNSELLING 29. Addiction 30. Distress behaviors 31. Sadness, low mood and depression 32. Fear, worry and anxiety 33. Counselling those experiencing grief and loss 34. Crisis intervention 35. Responding to suicide intentions Part 5 Training group exercises Part 6 TECHNOLOGY AND COUNSELLING 36. Telephone counselling 37. Internet counselling Part 6 Training group exercises Part 7 PROFESSIONAL ISSUES 38. Becoming a counsellor 39. The counselling environment 40. Keeping records of counselling sessions 41. Cultural diversity considerations 42. Confidentiality and other ethical considerations 43. Counsellor training and the need for supervision 44. Looking after yourself