Co-Counselling

How well do you handle your emotions?

Instead of paying a professional counsellor or therapist why not give yourself the gift of a fantastic self-help technique. One that will hugely increase your awareness and skills, and provide you with a FREE personal support system for the rest of your life.

It is called co-counselling - 'co' because it's based on an exchange of time and skills (not money) between two people of equal status who have had the same training.

All you need is a 40-hour training (5 days over 3 weekends) to become an accredited co-counsellor. Then you can join your local community and become a member of CCI, which is a UK and International organisation. There is more about the trainings here.

The next course in Suffolk starts Autumn 2012. Dates: 22&23 September, 6&7 October, 20 October. Times: 09.30-18.00.

There are free Taster sessions where you can meet us and find out all about co-counselling. Contact us for information about Tasters or Fundamentals.

Steve is author (with Sue Gray) of an introductory book about co-counselling called "What's On Top?". It can be ordered direct from the publisher, or from Browsers Bookshop in Woodbridge. It is also available as a download.

There is more about co-counselling in general at the CCI UK website.

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Peer Work Support
A way to feel more supported yourself, which helps you to support other people.

This is a co-counselling-based system for creating a safe and confidential way to discuss issues that come up at work. It begins with a training that takes place over a few days.

From the training:

You learn more about how you tick emotionally, and what is going on for other people.
You learn through experience, by trying things out yourself.

The teaching is informal, with no long handouts, and no need to write lots of notes. The course is based on respected theories of emotional learning and psychodynamic principles.

What do people get from it?

The system offers a clear structure for supervison, 1 to 1 sessions, and group meetings.
It creates a supportive and self-sustaining network that improves communication between people working together.
Both volunteers and staff have a greater self-awareness, feel more supported, and better equipped to do their work.

Skills you will learn include:

managing emotional responses
maintaining clear boundaries
building rapport and listening well
giving and receiving feedback
working unsupervised in groups and pairs
handling confidentiality
communicating clearly.

Benefits for the Individual:
You feel better equipped for your role, so you can give more support to your clients and colleagues, and feel better supported yourself.

Benefits for the Organisation:

Cost-effectiveness: once people are trained, there are no regular ongoing facilitator costs.
Committeed volunteers and better team-working = less support needed from paid staff.
Better communication between volunteers and staff.
Improved recruitment, sickness and retention rates.

Training Model: Peer Work Support is a effective and low-cost method to help your people feel more supported and to improve productivity. It is a highly experiential training, based on respected theories of emotional learning and psychodynamic principles. Learners practice all the skills so they are proficient by the end of the course. The method provides a clear culture and framework for supervision and meetings for groups and individuals.