Advanced Counselling Course.
Study for your professional development/CPD
In this course we look at -
- Learn how to combine skills to both facilitate and improve the likelihood of change. Obviously no two situations will ever be the same, but certain patterns will emerge.
- Learn to demonstrate how micro-skills can be combined in the counselling process.
- Students will also be able to demonstrate methods of telephone counselling and techniques for dealing with specific crisis situations.
Develop your knowledge of -
- The Counselling Process.
- Problem Solving Strategies.
- Depression.
- Suicide.
- Aggression.
- Grief and Loss.
- Coping with a crisis.
Lesson Structure
There are 8 lessons in this course:
-
The Counselling Session: How Micro-Skills come together
-
Focus on the Present: Present experiences; Feedback; Transference; Projection; Resistance
-
Telephone Counselling: Visual v non-visual contact; Preparation; Initial contact; Use of micro-skills; Overall Process; Debriefing; Types of Problem Callers
-
Dealing with Crises: What is a crisis? Types of crisis; Dangers of Crises; Counsellor’s Responses and Intervention; Post-Traumatic Stress
-
Problem-Solving Techniques I, Aggression: Assisting the Client to Express Anger; Encouraging Change; Role-Play; Externalising Anger
-
Problem-Solving Techniques II, Depression: Counselling Depression; Blocked Anger; Referral Practice; Chronic Depression; Setting Goals; Promoting Action
-
Problem-Solving Techniques III, Grief and Loss: Loss of Relationships; Assisting the Grieving Client; Stages of Grief
-
Problem-Solving Techniques IV, Suicide: Ethics; Reasons for Suicide; Perceived Risk; Counselling Strategies; Counselling Skills; Alternative Approach
Aims
-
Demonstrate the application of micro skills to different stages of the counselling process.
-
Role-play the dynamics of the counselling process including such phenomenon as present experiences, feedback, transference, counter-transference, projection and resistance.
-
Demonstrate telephone counselling techniques.
-
Develop appropriate responses to crises, both emotional and practical.
-
Show ways of encouraging the client to deal with aggression.
-
Demonstrate different ways of encouraging the client to cope with depression.
-
Discuss strategies for dealing with grief.
-
Develop different strategies of helping suicidal clients.
What You Will Do
-
Identify clearly the stages in the counselling process.
-
Explain how a counsellor might encourage the client to relax in the first session.
-
Demonstrate at what stage the counsellor should bring in micro-skills other than those of minimal responses and reflection of content and feeling.
-
Demonstrate at what stage the counsellor should focus attention on the client’s thoughts and why.
-
Demonstrate control techniques in conversation, in a role play.
-
Correlate certain types of non-visual cues with feelings in a case study.
-
Show how a counsellor could assist a client to consider the present and how this could facilitate the counselling process.
-
Demonstrate appropriate use of feedback in the counselling situation.
-
Demonstrate inappropriate use of feedback in the counselling situation.
-
Distinguish between transference and counter-transference.
-
Demonstrate telephone counselling techniques in a role play.
-
Describe how to deal with a distressed client (male/female) through telephone counselling.
-
Show how to terminate a telephone counselling session.
-
Explain the main advantages of telephone counselling.
-
Describe techniques to effectively deal with nuisance callers in telephone counselling.
-
Evaluate how a crisis was managed by a person, in a case study.
-
Outline the main crisis categories.
-
Demonstrate different practical responses that might be applied to a crisis.
-
Show when it is appropriate for a counsellor to conclude crisis counselling.
-
Analyse an aggressive/violent outburst (physical/mental) by an individual; in a case study.
-
Explain an aggressive/violent outburst (physical/mental) by an individual; in a case study.
-
Demonstrate how a counsellor might encourage a client to appropriately express their anger.
-
Explain why it is important that clients become aware of the physiological effects of anger.
-
Identify the origin of depression in a case study.
-
Explain the origin of depression in a case study.
-
Explain the relationship between depression and blocked anger.
-
Demonstrate how a counsellor could encourage a client to explore their anger.
-
Identify risks involved in dealing with someone with chronic depression.
-
Explain the benefits of goal-setting to the counselling process.
-
Identify when depressed clients should be referred on to other professionals.
-
Evaluate the grieving process in a case study.
-
Compare the grieving process in a case study, with the 7 classic stages of grieving.
-
Determine which stage of grieving was most difficult in a case study.
-
Explain the significance of denial in the grieving process.
-
Demonstrate how a counsellor could combat feelings of denial in grieving.
-
Explain why it is important for both the client and the counsellor to understand the grieving process.
-
Research into suicide, to determine attitudes, information and support services available in the student’s country.
-
Discuss a variety of different people’s views on suicide.
-
Describe high risk factors to be looked for when assessing the likelihood of a person committing suicide.
-
Demonstrate alternative strategies that a counsellor might use to become more aware of a depressed client’s risk of suicide.
-
Explain how a counsellor might learn to challenge their own irrational beliefs in order to help a suicidal client.
-
Compare working with and working in opposition to a client.
Sample Course Notes - CASE STUDY - Counselling Child "X"
Child X recently experienced a serious knee injury. She was told she may not walk properly again. She was a very good gymnast and was told it was unlikely that she would be able to do gymnastics. She wrote a daily diary about how she felt. Repeating over and over again stories about the same day, the day it happened. She wrote that she wished it had never happened, how she went to the hospital, what her mum said, what her teacher said. It was the same story, over and over again, but looking at it in different ways, from different perspectives. Eventually, through physiotherapy and operations, she was able to walk again AND actually was able to do gymnastics again. But she refuses to get rid of those stories and occasionally looks at them and shows them to her mother.
This was obviously a very traumatic and painful experience for this child. With no one telling her, she thought about the event, and wrote about her feelings about it over and over again. She expressed those feelings. She didn't hide them from anyone. She talked about it. We do not know if there is/will be any long term impact to this injury in terms of her grieving. She still mentions it frequently, so she may not have fully resolved this, but the fact that she was willing to write about and consider this event is useful for her mental (and perhaps physical) recovery.
Other practical ideas to help a grieving child:
- Encourage them to write a story or draw a poem and send it into the sky via a balloon.
- They may start a scrap book.
- They may start a diary.
- The child may want to plant a tree or flower in the garden to help them remember the person.
- Encourage children to remember special days such as birthdays, mother’s day/father’s day and so on relating to the person who has died or gone away.
As with anything though, this should not be forced. You should not force a child to write a diary or draw a picture. Suggest it, then let the child think about what they may want to do. Forcing the child to think about something painful when they do not want to or are not ready to can be harmful to them.
As a child grows and develops, the way they respond to grief changes with their understanding. A child may lose their mother when they are very young and hardly remember them. But as that child reaches puberty, or a special birthday, or changes school, or gets married or has their own child, they may re-evaluate how they feel about the fact that they don’t have a mother, that their mother wasn’t there at this special occasion, what they have lost by not having a mother, and so on.
A child who is grieving may go over and over the same thing, as adults can. This should be encouraged, as it can be a way of helping the child to resolve their grief. It is only when the child seems unable to move on, to break out of this cycle that counselling or grief counselling should be considered – if the child gets “stuck” in their grief.
What do our students think of our courses?
I have done several counselling courses in the past and the coaching course fitted in well with the learning experiences I had encountered previously. The reading material was detailed and interesting and the feedback was detailed and constructive.
Sarah, Life Coaching
Who is this course suitable for?
This course is suitable for anyone who uses counselling skills in
their daily life as a way to improve their use of counselling skills,
such as -
- Professional Counsellors.
- Volunteer Counsellors.
- Helpline workers.
- Charity workers.
- Support Staff.
- Social Workers.
- Youth Workers.
- Nutritional Counsellors.
- Nutritionists.
- Parents.
- Foster Carers.
- Nurses.
- Nursing Assistants.
- And anyone who is interested in improving their communication and counselling skills.
Why Study This Course?
This course will help you to -
- Improve your communication and counselling skills
- Be an effective communicator.
- Support people experiencing difficulties in their lives
- Learn all this in the comfort of your own home with support from our friendly and highly experienced tutors.
- Improve your People Skills by Study Counselling Skills!
It will also improve your job and career prospects. Studying counselling skills is useful for people who want to train as counsellors, but also anyone who wants to work with people.
Enrol at any time to suit you. This is a self-paced course, so you work at a time and location to suit you.
Any Questions?
Our counselling tutors are happy to answer any questions you may have about the course, so please do ask.
