What Is Counselling?:

What is Counselling?: www.dur.ac.uk/counselling.service/counselling

Counselling helps you look at difficulties and problems that you may be experiencing whilst at University.

Sharing thoughts and feelings in the context of a therapeutic relationship will help you feel less isolated, and will enable you to understand more clearly what is happening now, and how you would like things to change.

Talking about experiences in a neutral and confidential environment will help you to work through concerns so that your University studies may be completed successfully.

Counselling sessions are normally arranged on a weekly basis, and each lasts 50 minutes.

If you would prefer 30 minutes, that can also be arranged.

Students come for Counselling with a broad range of difficulties, for example: exam anxiety, depression, suicidal feelings, Mental Health problems, past traumas, bereavements, issues concerning relationships, sexuality, family problems, self-harm and eating disorders.

Whatever the problem is, or seems to be, you will be very welcome.

What Is Counselling?: www.uwe.ac.uk/csa/counselling/whatcounselling.shtml

Counselling helps you to explore and manage whatever is happening in your life.

Maybe you have some worries or concerns that you need to think through, or possibly some difficult decisions to make.

Counsellors aim to help you through difficult situations and provide you with an opportunity to move towards a more satisfying and resourceful experience of life.

Counselling may help you with:

*Personal development issues
*Addressing and resolving particular difficulties
*Making decisions
*Coping with crises
*Making sense of complex and possibly conflicting feelings
*Improving relationships with others

The counsellor's role is to facilitate your self-exploration in ways that respect your values, personal resources and capacity for choice within your cultural context.

Many of us expect to gain support from friends, colleagues and family members.

Sometimes, however, our usual sources of support can be too close, inappropriate, or even part of the problem.

At such times trained and experienced counsellors have been shown to be particularly effective in helping, especially in difficult or sensitive situations.

Counselling works best as a partnership.

This begins with your counsellor as soon as you make contact. Good counsellors help you to explain what is important to you.

He or she will ask questions and, naturally, will listen a great deal to begin with.

Your counsellor will often clarify, reflect comments back to you and encourage further exploration so that you both develop an accurate picture of your situation.

By looking at a situation from a fresh perspective, we often discover new possibilities.

You will find yourself encouraged to talk, to think and also to listen. Counselling is an interactive, two-way process.

You do not have to tell the counsellor everything about you and your life, but you should try to be as open with your counsellor as you know you need to be.

Counsellors not only help you to understand your situation, but to review options for change and to make the best decisions about any subsequent actions.

People often find that knowing they have a plan they have considered carefully from all angles improves self-confidence and optimism for the future.

For students in particular, major changes are an inevitable part of university life and may come at a time when the familiar support networks of home, family and old friends are no longer accessible or secure.

Student counselling has developed in recognition of these extra pressures on students.

It is quite normal to go through periods of being worried or depressed, of struggling with your studies or finding it difficult to cope with major changes in your life.

At times like these people have many different ways of coping, and seeing a counsellor to talk things through can help you to make sense of what is happening and put you back in touch with your own resources.

Whatever your issue, we invite you to get in touch with us: www.uwe.ac.uk/csa/counselling/contact.shtml

What Is Counselling?: www.bacp.co.uk/education/whatiscounselling.html

The British Association For Counselling & Psychotherapy - The BACP: Definition Of Counselling:

Counselling takes place when a counsellor sees a client in a private and confidential setting to explore a difficulty the client is having, distress they may be experiencing or perhaps their dissatisfaction with life, or loss of a sense of direction and purpose.

It is always at the request of the client as no one can properly be 'sent' for counselling.

By listening attentively and patiently the counsellor can begin to perceive the difficulties from the client's point of view and can help them to see things more clearly, possibly from a different perspective.

Counselling is a way of enabling choice or change or of reducing confusion.

It does not involve giving advice or directing a client to take a particular course of action. Counsellors do not judge or exploit their clients in any way.

In the counselling sessions the client can explore various aspects of their life and feelings, talking about them freely and openly in a way that is rarely possible with friends or family.

Bottled up feelings such as anger, anxiety, grief and embarrassment can become very intense and counselling offers an opportunity to explore them, with the possibility of making them easier to understand.

The counsellor will encourage the expression of feelings and as a result of their training will be able to accept and reflect the client's problems without becoming burdened by them.

Acceptance and respect for the client are essentials for a counsellor and, as the relationship develops, so too does trust between the counsellor and client, enabling the client to look at many aspects of their life, their relationships and themselves which they may not have considered or been able to face before.

The counsellor may help the client to examine in detail the behaviour or situations which are proving troublesome and to find an area where it would be possible to initiate some change as a start.

The counsellor may help the client to look at the options open to them and help them to decide the best for them.

Models of counselling:

Although there is considerable consensus about the core content of a counselling course, there are nevertheless distinct methods of counselling.

Most courses start from a theoretical base - typically humanistic, psychodynamic, cognitive or behavioural.

Before enrolling on a course it is advisable to be aware of its theoretical emphasis and what that means in terms of the learning experience offered and the skills acquired.

Counselling or psychotherapy training?:

It is not possible to make a generally accepted distinction between counselling and psychotherapy.

There are well founded traditions which use the terms interchangeably and others which distinguish between them.

If there are differences, then they relate more to the individual psychotherapist's or counsellor's training and interests and to the setting in which they work, rather than to any intrinsic difference in the two activities.

A psychotherapist working in a hospital is likely to be more concerned with severe psychological disorders than with the wider range of problems about which it is appropriate to consult a counsellor.

In private practice, however, a psychotherapist is more likely to accept clients whose need is less severe. Similarly, in private practice a counsellor's work will overlap with that of a psychotherapist.

Those counsellors, however, who work for voluntary agencies or in educational settings such as schools and colleges usually concentrate more on the 'everyday' problems and difficulties of life than on the more severe psychological disorders.

Many are qualified to offer therapeutic work which in any other context would be called psychotherapy.

What Is Counselling?: www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=658

CounsellingIntroductionWe normally deal with stressful events by talking with our families or other support networks.

Sometimes, talking to an independent person would be more helpful.

We all have different abilities to cope with managing our personal difficulties.

It is sometimes considered admirable pretend that everything is alright without admitting that you are in need of support.

However, everyone experiences stress, disappointments and grief to a certain degree at some stage in their life, and asking for help is not a sign of weakness but a useful step in managing your mental health.

It helps us to understand our own problems and the viewpoints of other people, instead of hoping that they will go away only to resurface later.

Certain types of counselling, or talking therapies, are recognised by the medical profession as helpful in the treatment of depression and anxiety, and other mental health issues.

However, many people without mental health problems find counselling a useful support in working towards a more positive lifestyle.

Counselling Websites/Links: www.bacp.co.uk

www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_d...asset/dh_4058245.pdf

www.teachersupport.info/files/Counselling.pdf

www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/Mak...e+of+counselling.htm

www.student.counselling.co.uk

www.counselling.org

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counseling

www.counselling-directory.org.uk

www.london-counselling-psychotherapy.co.uk/index.html

www.doncaster.gov.uk/Living_in_Doncaster...t_is_counselling.asp

www.bacp.co.uk/education/whatiscounselling.html

www.bacp.co.uk/education/careersincounselling.html