Counselling Skills

One of the downsides of using the term 'counselling' in any training programme tends to highlight the number of people who expect to leave the course with an idea that they can 'counsel' people – often going where 'angels fear to tread' and doing 'more damage than good'.

It must be stressed that counselling skills encourages the use of techniques that support meaningful dialogue in a professional context. We aim to equip participants with the skills to:

• create an environment which is professional and secure
• use approaches which are non-confrontational and effective

We deliver a programme on using counselling skills which would be suitable for anyone, in the work context, who needed to supervise staff, discuss sensitive issues, etc. – the programme could be adapted to meet the specific needs of the organisation e.g.

• long term absence
• bereavement
• mental health issues

The programme places emphasis on the core skills – which are used in counselling and would be invaluable in aiding staff to work effectively in situations such as:

• bereavement
• assessment & evaluation
• dealing with challenging clients
• disciplinary meetings
• Managing performance

The Psychological model of practice programme places an emphasis in communication effectively with people. This programme is largely interactive:

• looking at modelling behaviour
• language, tone
• non- verbal language and communication