Facilitator: RYPKEMA, Terri

The Counselling Skills component of the certificate program will help students develop a wide range of communication skills intended to elicit information, narrow focus, gain insight and promote personal growth. Students will develop an understanding of how and when to apply each skill with intention and to track progress. They will learn a range of counselling skills through modelling, role play exercises and videotape assignments. Students will have an opportunity to practise their skill development with student colleagues and through written exercises.

Goals:

• develop a repertoire of counselling skills
• understand how assessment and referral are part of the counselling process
• increase awareness of the stages of counselling.

• identify specific counselling skills:
  • attending
  • reflecting content and affect
  • empathy
  • summarizing
  • open/closed questions
  • probe
  • self-disclosure
  • immediacy
• demonstrate all counselling skills both in class and on videotape
• identify and utilize counselling skills designed to elicit information and conversation
• identify and utilize counselling skills designed to focus/narrow information and conversation
• identify the stages of counselling
• demonstrate the skills necessary for assessment and referral process.

Facilitator: JONES-CALLAHAN, Margaret

Mindfulness offers a simple idea: awareness in the moment. Putting that into practice can be more challenging. Counsellors and therapists are being attracted to mindfulness as a practice and as a therapeutic tool, based on the premise that working with others begins with oneself. Drawing from Gestalt Therapy and Mindfulness practice, the instructor begins the conversation about using self-awareness in service of others by inviting participants to experience different zones of awareness and notice what comes up in the moment. The goal is to become more open to aspects of yourself that may be unfamiliar, in order to be more fully present with others.

Introduction to Group Dynamics

Learn some of the basic concepts of group dynamics and explore the fundamentals of group process through an experiential day of learning.

• Define what makes a group and how a group forms
• Learn about stages and phases of group development
• Understand underlying dynamics such as roles and needs that can challenge or promote group cohesion
• Practice some communication and facilitation skills
• Apply some strategies that promote emotional intelligence in a group

Facilitator: CURTIS, Susan

Anxiety and depression are created less by the specific events in our lives than by the ways we respond to them. This session shows how to cope and offers a way forward. Explore the impact of attitudes and thoughts on emotional states and actions and begin the challenging and powerful work of restructuring thought patterns in order to deal with negative thoughts in a more positive and realistic way.

Using pen and paper exercises, small group discussion and instructor presentation, participants work to restructure thought patterns that can lead to enhanced mood and behaviour, and consider ways to apply the learning in a peer counselling situation.

Facilitator: RICE, Ann

Assertiveness is the clear, honest, relevant and appropriate expression of your ideas, values, thoughts, feelings, wishes and beliefs. It increases your ability to be understood, confident and effective in and out of the workplace. Focus on key skills and how they support you in peer counselling:

• delegate and make requests of colleagues, family and friends
• set boundaries and say no when necessary
• negotiate for positive change
• give feedback and handle criticism assertively.

Facilitator: SIGAL, Marilee

This participatory course will cover the basics of Bowen's Family Systems Theory. In the morning we will explore the major themes that affect the ways in which people relate to each other, such as pursuing and distancing, over and under-functioning, and the roles of anxiety, culture and birth order. The afternoon will be spent learning how to create our own genograms (emotional family tree) and to delve into multi-generational themes that continue to impact how we live our lives and the ways we manage relationships.

Facilitator: RICE, Anne

Your emotions are signals and data. They provide you with vital information about yourself and others. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to access and use that information to increase interpersonal skills, including peer counselling skills, and to navigate other aspects of your professional and personal lives. Build your understanding of EQ and critical EQ skills:

• develop "emotional literacy" to manage your emotions and increase self-control
• use information from your emotions to make smart decisions and enhance motivation
• increase your communication and interpersonal skills by learning to monitor and respond effectively to the emotions of others.

As its name implies, solution-focused therapy emphasizes finding solutions rather than dealing with problems. Through short lectures, reflective exercises and role plays, discover some of the fundamentals of the Solution Focused Therapy approach to helping clients. Develop the skill of identifying strengths and resources in any client situation, practise questioning skills to help identify and draw strengths into the counselling conversation, and practise particular SFT tools such reframing, scaling techniques and the miracle question.

Facilitator: HARPER, Gary

Conflict is inevitable whenever people work together. If not properly managed, it can become confrontational, personally stressful and unproductive. In this interactive workshop based on Gary's book by the same name, you will learn how to move beyond such confrontational stalemates and address conflict productively. Specifically, this workshop will allow you to:

• make sense of conflicts you encounter
• discover what lies at the root of the conflict
• choose the best approach in a conflict
• use basic communication skills to steer a conversation from blame and defensiveness towards problem solving.

Facilitator: HALLIDAY, Sally

Managers, team leaders and supervisors face unprecedented demands as they strive to adjust and thrive within rapidly changing work environments. The single most important factor that derails peoples' performance within organizations is poor interpersonal skills.

After completing a self score Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), participants will be encouraged to:

• understand personality type as per the MBTI and apply it as a tool in groups to build stronger interpersonal relationships
• participate in experiential exercises to explore the basic components of the MBTI psychological type model and its relationship to different communications styles
• learn how to enhance communication and problem solving skills
• be able to clarify and reframe information to suit the communication style of your intended audience.

Students will leave the workshop with a better understanding and appreciation of their own unique Type. The overall goal is to be able to apply your increased self-awareness to communicate and interact more effectively with others.

Facilitator: REYNOLDS, Vikki

Diversity counselling is an emerging field of practice, but what does it mean to work across cultures? Themes of inclusion and exclusion, belonging and connection are explored through experiential learning. To understand difference, you need to begin by locating yourself first, as a person who belongs in a particular culture, or even several cultures. Vicki Reynolds draws from her experience and training as a therapist, clinical supervisor, educator and activist who works across domains of relationship, culture, race, and power to engage participants to challenge their own ideas about diversity, connection and belonging.

Facilitator: RYPKEMA, Terri

This session provides the context for those in a peer counselling role to recognize signs and symptoms of clients at risk in order to make an appropriate referral for professional support. Through lecture, discussion and case studies, students will learn to assess for safety issues, triggers and warning signs in relation to issues such as suicide, domestic violence and substance use.

Facilitator: MAIN, Carolyn

Our society does not cope well with death. We instinctively turn away from the reality that it will happen to all of us. Not surprisingly, then, when the loss of a loved one is experienced, the bereaved often find the journey through their grief to be a lonely one with few signposts and even fewer people around them who know what to say or do to help. In this class we will look at grief as a natural response to loss that does not need to be pathologized or "cured." We will examine several grief models that illustrate what can be expected on the road from pain and despair to reconciliation, hope and healing. And we will explore ways that will help you feel more comfortable walking beside or "companioning" others in grief.

Facilitator: ABDEL-MALEK, Alex

In this course, participants will learn about the differences between ethics and morality and how to address such issues as professional vs. personal boundaries, codes of ethics, dual relationships and note-keeping. Special attention will be given to issues of confidentiality and requirements for reporting concerns. Students will be exposed to a model of ethical decision-making to help them with future ethical dilemmas. This is an interactive class and case examples and small group discussion will be used to highlight various issues.

Facilitator: ABDEL-MALEK, Alex

Where does stress come from in our lives? Is it something that exists outside ourselves? During this day, participants will have the opportunity to consider the notion of stress through a completely new lens. No longer will stress be seen as a behaviour to be "managed" or "balanced." Rather, the focus will be on gaining familiarity with concepts and reflective processes that facilitate new levels of individual wellness in harmony with each participant's particular needs and values.

Facilitator: URQUHART, Cristine

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a method of communication that supports people to make behaviour changes related to a variety of health concerns, such as substance use, diabetes and eating disorders.

Health care and social service providers across disciplines and contexts note the benefits of working from an MI approach for both themselves and their clients. Research shows that working with clients in a non-confrontational way guided by the spirit of motivational interviewing is a predictor of outcomes. This one-day introductory course focuses on understanding basic MI theory and the effectiveness of using a guiding style with clients. Core MI counselling skills and strategies to assist clients in building motivation for change are shared using a combination of training methods such as lecture, role play and group discussion.

Participants will be able to:

• identify three methods of communication (directing, guiding, following)
• understand how communication style can increase or decrease resistance
• understand the spirit and principles of MI.

Facilitator: RICE, Ann

This course focuses on creating momentum, authenticity and fulfillment in your work and life. In addition to helping you to move forward, it enables you, as a peer counsellor, to help others do the same. Exercises to assess where you are now, where you want to go and how to get there are integrated with opportunities to develop and practise peer counselling skills.

In this two-day course, identify:

• key lessons from experience that can empower you going forward
• what you value and want to create in work and life
• strengths and skills to develop and build on
• a realistic goal to get you on track
• strategies to enhance resilience and resolve.