Gain a more indepth understanding of the use of counselling skills.

It is sometimes the case that clients expect that the counsellor will be able to conjure up an instant cure. In such cases, it may well be necessary for the counsellor to spell out to the client that they are not an expert who can offer a magical solution to the client's problems, but that their role is to help the client express their problems and feelings so as to gain a better understanding of themselves. The client needs to understand that it is not the role of the counsellor to offer advice, but rather to enable the client to find their own solutions that are right for them. It may also be necessary to inform the client that finding solutions to problems can take a long time, and that they may need to exercise patience and be prepared to commit to a number of sessions.

This course will help you to discover how to use counselling micro-skills - including methods of telephone counselling and techniques for dealing with specific crisis situations - to improve your counselling. This course is ideal for those who have already gained the basic counselling skills covered in Counselling Skills I, and want to further develop their ability to counsel others. Those involved in helping services and community services will also benefit from this course.

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. The Counselling Session - how micro-skills come together
2. Focus on the Present - present experiences; feedback; transference; projection; resistance
3. Telephone Counselling - non-visual contact; preparation; initial contact; use of micro-skills; overall process; debriefing; types of problem callers
4. Dealing with Crises - defining crisis; types of crisis; dangers of crisis; counsellor's responses and intervention; post-traumatic stress
5. Problem-Solving Techniques I: Aggression - expressing anger; encouraging change; role-play; externalising anger
6. Problem-Solving Techniques II: Depression - blocked anger; referral practice; chronic depression; setting goals; promoting action
7. Problem-Solving Techniques III: Grief and Loss - loss of relationships; children and grief; stages of grief
8. Problem-Solving Techniques IV: Suicide - ethics; reasons for suicide; perceived risk; counselling strategies; alternative approach.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

• 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.

• 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 studyÒ 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 6 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.