About Basic Counselling Skills Training

Background

Counselling Corner was founded with the mission of improving the lives of others through counselling, psychotherapy and support empowerment by
advocacy and facilitating positive social changes within communities throughout Myanmar. 

To create a bigger capacity and understanding, Counselling Corner launched the Basic Counselling Training to the public and trained over 1000 people
interested in the basics of mental health.

During 20 hours of  training (2 hours a day) the basics of counselling are explained including topics such as the role of a counsellor, essential counselling skills, values, starting and ending a session and principles of counselling. Theory and interactive practice means that participants learn new skills that they can use immediately. Anyone regardless of their identity and background will be able to attend and learn this new and valuable life skill for everyone, especially volunteer counsellors, psychology students, teachers, educators, nurses, social volunteers, etc. Previous participants include Human Resources staff, psychology students, faith group counsellors, and medical doctors. The training is hailed by many previous students as “the best training they ever did” and the start of a career as a professional counsellor. This training is offered in Myanmar language, starts monthly and can also be done for a private group. The training is conducted online or face-to-face.

Training Objective

  • To educate and train the participants about the theory and practices of basic counselling, the Skilled Helper Model, counselling principles and counsellors ethics and the role of a qualified counsellor.
  • To promote self-reflection among the participants which is important both for one’s own well-being and to be able to help others.
  • To understand and increase awareness about emotions and work-out on the feelings.
  • To support another person’s mental health and emotional well-being with the combination of values, ethics, knowledge and communication skills gained from the training.
  • To bring more skillful and competent counsellors by completion of a full training course (Basic – Intermediate – Advanced counselling skills training) and offer practical experience and give supervision for starting counsellors.

Training Agenda

DayTopicObjectives
Day 1What is Counselling?Overview of counselling
To explore types of counselling3 types of counselling and how it works
Day 2Role of a CounselorTo know about the role of counsellor.
Identify why and how people seek counselling
To understand how confidentiality works in counselling sessions
To reflect yourself why you want to be a counsellor
Day 3Natural Helping StyleTo explore about personality types
To know about the factors which influence our personality
To be able to reflect your temperament and attachment styles
To identify your natural helping styles
Day 4Essential Counselling SkillsTo explore the essential counselling skills To be able to investigate which skills you can use in practice sessions
To improve yourself to apply these skills
To know about Skilled helper model and how it works
Day 5CommunicationTo know about how communication is important To observe verbal and nonverbal behavior of the clients
To understand the communication process
Day 6ValuesTo find out what your own value system Value exercise
To find out where our value comes from
The connection between values and beliefs
Day 7Counselling Skills in DepthTo know in depth about one of the essential counselling skills:
Reflection
To explore how we use reflection skills in counselling session
To differentiate between empathy and sympathy
Acceptance, listening and questioning skills
Day 8Session from the start till the endTo know about how counselling sessions from the start till the end
To understand more about counselling process5 stages of counselling process
Day 9Principles for CounsellingTo know about basic counselling principles
To learn about the personality trait of an effective counsellor
To understand about qualities of counselling relationship
To explore more about supervision and why it is needed for a counsellor
To know about basic ethics to have in a counsellor
Day10RecapTo revise the previous topics

Skills covered in the Basic Counselling Skills Training

  • Basics of Counselling
  • Essential Counselling Skills
  • Counselling Skills in depth
  • Communication Skills
  • Values and Beliefs
  • Essential qualities for a counsellor include Congruence, Empathy, Attentiveness, Non-judgement and Unconditional Positive Regards, Proficiency.
  • Basic Ethics as a Counsellor

These skills are the foundation steps to become an accomplished counsellor and also very helpful to ourselves and can be used to help others in our environment. These skills are trained using both theory and practice, so participants gain a lot of knowledge and experiences to start using immediately.

Training method and assignments

The student-centered learning method is used for the training, so we proceed our sessions by a two-ways method that we can discuss, share and ask freely our own opinions between the trainer and participants. During the 20 hours of training, we go by presentations,discussion and practice sessions. There are also assignments to be done by the participants on each day.
Assignments include:
– Writing Reflective Essays which aim to explore our feelings and reflect our experiences
– Answering Assessment Questions
– Answering Divergent Questions
– Recording of Role-play Counselling Practice Session
To be certified for Basic Counselling Skills Training, all the participants must complete all the assignments given within a determined period

Next Steps For Participants

After completing the full course of Basic Counselling Skills Training, the participants can follow Counselling Corner’s Intermediate and Advanced Counselling Skills Trainings where you can learn more precise and efficient skills to become a qualified counsellor. Once you have finished your Advanced Counselling Skills training, we regularly offer opportunities to volunteer with some of our projects which could be research, co-facilitating an emotional workshop, assisting in training or other projects. The more experience you get in the field, the better and some of our former students have become junior counsellors with Counselling Corner or work at civil society organizations, schools, INGO’s or started their own practice.

Who Should Attend Basic Counselling Skills Training

Anyone regardless of their identity and background will be able to attend and learn this new and valuable life skill for everyone, especially volunteer counsellors, psychology students, teachers, educators, nurses, social volunteers, etc. Counselling Corner welcomes professionals from different fields who are interested in counselling, aspiring to become a counsellor and applying mental well-being to themselves and their surroundings.

If you are interested and want to apply for Basic Counselling Skills Training, you can register at our website or follow our Facebook page for more information.
Website – Basic Counselling Skills Training dates
Facebook – Counselling Corner Myanmar