Basic Counselling Skills For Addiction Workers

Course details

This programme is aimed at people who are already working in the area of addiction and wish to improve their counselling skills. The core content of the programme is an introduction to counselling skills and is specifically designed to assist participants in identifying their own level of counselling skills and to build on these.

The programme is highly interactive with a mix of role-plays, group discussion and smaller group exercises. The aim of the programme is to assist those working in the area of addiction to underpin existing skills and build on and expand these skills throughout the course.

PROGRAMME CERTIFICATION

• Certificate in Basic Counselling Skills for Addiction Workers from The Learning Curve Institute.

PROGRAMME AIMS

To equip students with the tools to enable them to use basic counselling skills in their everyday work. To allow participants to learn the fundamentals of counselling skills and their relevance within an addiction setting.

PROGRAMME CONTENT

Students will receive handouts and relevant literature to enable them to develop their understanding of basic counseling skills. In each session students will have the opportunity to observe and practice basic counselling skills through role-plays and scenarios provided by the lecturer.

The methodology used in this training will be a combination of the following:

Participative: The participants will be asked to contribute to the training both in the large group and also in smaller ones. There will be a number of exercises throughout the training that are designed for the group to be split up into smaller groups.

Experiential: The training will allow participants to contribute by using examples of anonymous clients that they have worked with or are currently working with.

Theory into practice: The training will allow some role plays that will encourage participants to put the theory into practice.

Information giving: There will be handouts and information on relevant reading that will be distributed at each days training.

Worker led: The training will be flexible to the needs of the group.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• To equip students with the tools to enable them to develop and build on their own counselling skills.
• To build on and expand existing knowledge within the group.
• To enhance confidence in participants use of basic counselling skills.
• To provide space and time for participants to use the following key counseling skills:
• Listening
• Looking (non verbal communication)
• Analysing (why is this person looking for help and what do they see as the problem)
• Use of Open-ended questions
• Reflective Listening
• Summarising
• Empathy
• Paraphrasing

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Participants are required to have worked in or to be currently working in the field of addiction.

ASSESSMENT

Assessment will be carried out through continuous assessment of role plays and listening exercises.