Basic Counselling Skills is a prerequisite for the Counselling Skills Foundational Certificate, but it is more than that. It offers essential learning for anybody that wants to be a good communicator with basic empathy and active listening skills. An instructor, alumni, and student share their classroom experiences.
Basic Counselling Student and Registered Clinical Counsellor at the Psychological Health & Safety Clinic, Patricia Ruiz I had an excellent experience in the Basic Counselling course. The course was well organized, and it provided a lot of opportunities to practice essential basic counselling skills one-to-one with other classmates. I took the class specifically to explore the possibility of a career change, and by the time I completed the course, I had confirmed my decision to pursue a Master of Counselling and become a registered clinical counsellor.
The skills that we learned and practiced are some of the most useful basic skills in counselling, and I use them every day. I strongly believe these skills are useful in every relationship, in both personal and workplace contexts, and that these skills can be used by anyone to enhance their communication skills.
Foundational Certificate grad and Peer Support Worker at the Downtown East Side Women’s Centre, Florence Tubaone This class is very crucial when beginning to work in the field of support counselling. The experience of Basic Counselling helped me learn to support women from diverse situations. Now, I work with women who went through a lot in their lives and need support, love, and care. The skills from Basic Counselling such as verbal and non-verbal communication, problem-solving techniques, and especially active listening, are helping me keep a healthy relationship with my clients.
I enjoyed practicing all the roles such as counsellor, client, and observer, gaining more skills, and overall it enhanced my self-esteem and confidence.
Basic Counselling Instructor and Vocational Rehabilitation Consultant for WorkSafeBC, Audrey Pons In Basic Counselling Skills students are surprised at how quickly their listening skills improve and how they can use empathy skills to help friends and family feel heard and understood. We share a variety of dilemmas and how to work through them in a professional manner. I love teaching the class as it brings to light interpersonal communication skills that are easily incorporated into practice on a daily basis.
Basic Counselling is essential if you want any career in the helping field as it provides the framework for the core conditions of counselling (empathy, genuineness, respect), honing your listening skills, understanding how the use of empathy in a helping relationship is different from a regular friendship. These skills would be beneficial for any customer-oriented role.
While exploring active listening, team-building skills are acquired and much laughter and tears are shed. By the end of the term, many new friendships have been created. I maybe biased as the instructor, but I highly recommend this course.
