Persona Counselling

learning to be all I can be

Certificate Programme in Counselling Skills

Overview of Certificate Programme

This 120-hour Certificate comprises four modules which offer a thorough introduction to the concepts and practice of counselling skills. Counselling Skills are the "people-skills" which are necessary for the efficient delivery of a range of supportive or helping interventions.

The Course is designed for people who wish to know more about counselling skills and a "counselling approach", either for use in work or for personal development and will focus on the development of Skills, Knowledge, and Personal Awareness.

The Certificate Programme in Counselling Skills is created and facilitated by the Persona/Fidasa training team. Our hope is that you will find that the course provides participants with the support and learning environment to facilitate their development in the use of counselling skills. The programme offers a thorough introduction to the concepts and practice of counselling skills and self-reflectiveness. Additionally the course also fulfils entry criteria for individuals who wish to continue their development through a Diploma Programme in Counselling.

The staff team are experienced Person-Centred therapists and facilitators who work with individuals, groups and organisations to support learning and development and interpersonal effectiveness. They support participants and facilitate the processes of the course by communicating acceptance, empathic understanding and congruence. Through these core attitudes they provide the structure of the course.

The style and approach to development and learning which characterises Persona can be summed up as creative facilitation. We make the subtle but significant shift from trainers to facilitators of learning. This is not fancy word-play but an emphasis on how we understand our task in the learning process. This style of creative facilitation encourages the learner to explore and it seeks to engage the learner, not as a "receiver of knowledge" but as a "seeker of truth". Our aim is to facilitate a learning environment in which participants are affirmed as learners. Theory, skills and insight do not have an absolute value in themselves but only a value relative to the learner and our style is to support people as they discover that valuing process within themselves. It is essentially an experiential approach which means that we are willing to create and use a wide variety of activities with the specific aim of prompting personal reflection and insight which in turn feed into the interpersonal process of dialogue.

Sessions are always interactive and the process will include a variety of activities ranging from brief presentations to providing searching questions for individuals to discuss, from inviting people to share personal experiences to creating representative images. Helping participants to know themselves as learners and as the ones who give learning its value affirms people as learners rather than burdening them with concerns of adequacy.

The Persona learning philosophy emphasises the careful and detailed use of feedback. The primary purpose of feedback is to support the individual in their on-going learning. Feedback is provided to support the person achieve what they are aiming to achieve. We encourage participants to seek feedback from other participants as well as the facilitators so that they do not fear the feedback process but welcome it as a useful support to their own learning agenda.

Programme Structure
The principle theoretical model to understanding counselling skills adopted by the course is the Person-Centred approach, as developed by Carl Rogers and others. This approach values the relationship between people rather than the idea of the helper being 'expert'. The course explores this approach in detail but also refers to other approaches. The focus for counselling skills practice is effective communication through active listening and facilitative responding.

This programme seeks to bring out an appreciation of existing skills and create opportunities for these to be developed. At the same time, to become more effective in supporting others, it is important that individuals develop their own self awareness. Without this, there is a real danger that responses to others may be inappropriate. These three elements, theory, skill-development and self-awareness are all interwoven into the structure of the course.

Each session has a particular theme and will normally include the following elements: presentation and discussion of theory, opportunities for self-development and practice development. As well as situations where the whole group meets together, there will be smaller groups for skills practice. We work towards establishing a 'learning community' that accepts the diversity and uniqueness of individuals whilst recognising the value of mutually respectful relationships where each person contributes to the learning of others. Within this framework the following aspects of Counselling Skills are introduced explored and discussed:

The difference between talking to friends and using counselling skills;

The difference between formal counselling and using counselling skills;

Key counselling skills and certain core attitudes which support these skills;

The person-centred concept of the "supportive" relationship;

The 'therapeutic conditions' as described by Carl Rogers

The nature of 'unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence'

The effectiveness of empathy as a therapeutic condition

The nature and effects of 'conditions of worth'

The concept of 'locus of evaluation'

Processes associated with therapeutic 'beginnings, middles and endings'

The languages of different therapeutic approaches

The 'Transition Theories of "Adams, Hayes, and Hopson", "Bridges" and others

An understanding of the importance of Ethical Frameworks

Issues of confidentiality

The impact of prejudice and discrimination in offering counselling skills

The nature of power and vulnerability in human interactions.

Learning Outcomes:
On completion of the programme participants should be able to:

establish an appropriate, safe and supporting relationship

evaluate and monitor self in using a counselling approach

communicate empathic sensitivity in ways which enhance active listening skills;

maintain a non-judgmental attitude towards others;

communicate warmth and respect to others

avoid insincerity or dishonesty in communication with clients;

establish psychological 'contact' with others;

employ effective strategies for beginning and ending encounters with others;

maintain appropriate boundaries in relation to confidential and privileged information;

identify ethical issues in the practice of self and others.

The objectives of each session are outlined to you at the beginning of a session and the process of each session will be explained to you in advance.

What is expected of participants?

Everyone learns differently. Participants are expected to participate in ways that contribute to your learning and the learning of others. The facilitators support participants in this in ways which are sensitive, respectful but also stretching. Because the course aims to achieve learning through an exploration of personal experience, self reflection and interaction with other course members, 100% attendance is ideal. However, given that this programme is part of our ongoing often busy and unpredictable lives, 85% attendance is a realistic goal which we suggest you do your best to aim for.

It is impossible to complete the course without doing some background reading. A suggested reading list is supplied, and handouts and other reading material will also be given out.

Detailed guidance will be given on each written assignment and as far as possible these should be submitted by the due dates. Where this is not possible, it should be negotiated with a course tutor in advance.

During the course you will be required to video your skills practice at different times. This is an excellent form of learning because it allows you to actually observe yourself and become your own tutor. Usually people have an initial reaction to seeing themselves and hearing their voice on tape but when you get beyond this the learning benefits to you far outweigh the initial self-conscious reaction.

For a course such as this it is ideal to keep a learning journal. For some this is not a difficult discipline to adopt but for others it is a new approach and difficult to sustain. In order to support you in doing this we provide Reflection Questions following each unit. The purpose of this is to help you reflect, in writing, on what the unit was about and what it meant to you personally. We strongly recommend that you use these to consider your own experience on the course and to map your own learning journey.

Finally, in the Persona Counselling Skills Certificate we do not use "role-play", i.e. invite participants to pretend to be someone else or pretend they are talking to someone different from the person who is sitting in front of them. All discussions and skills practice sessions are genuinely about the people involved, not someone else and not some other situation. This means that at times in can be quite personal material which is being discussed. We expect every participant to be respectful of others and to be sensitive to what people share. We also invite participants to take care of themselves and feel free to withdraw from a discussion or an exercise if they do not feel secure enough in themselves to continue. This will always be respected and supported by the tutors.