"Know thyself" - Awareness of oneself is the essential step towards growth. We have started our counselling course for Religions at N.B.C.L.C. Bangalore from 22.07.2019 to 29.07.2019. About 31 women religious and 5 priests came from various places and different congregations. Our resources person were Sr. Juliana pinto and Sr.Janitha. They were very enthusiastic and interesting to impart the skills of counselling.

They started with behavioral scenic from wholeness to holiness then characteristic of the counsellor, kinds of listening, total and active listening. This program focussed more on practice. The skills, techniques, stages, ethics, postures, etc. Practice makes the person perfect; it was true as we had more practical session. The counselling course was very effective as the participants became more aware of themselves and their potentialities that would enable them to contribute more in their mission.

Theory was followed by practical, during the courses she gave us ample chances and time to counsel each other, everyday changing the partner to enrich each other. During general assembly we discussed our lights and shades. Through the video show we understood and enriched to put into practice the rules and methods of counselling in our daily life. The following points were the participants received.

Counselling is a profession; practitioners should complete a prescribed course of study. It is a process in which clients learn how to make decision and formulate new ways of behaving feeling and thinking.

Characteristic of a counsellor are: courage, confidentiality, trustworthy, capacity for intimacy, genuineness, (authenticity), capacity for personal energy.

Postures needed in counselling are: verbal & non verbal- welcoming, eye contact, squarely open, learning forward, attentive, relaxed.

Counselling ethics are keeping in mind the clients welfare (dignity), promoting well being, respect diversity, confidentiality, authenticity and self confidence.

Skills for counselling include facilitative and active skills. Active skills are listening, paraphrasing, summarizing, clarifying, probing, reflective feeling, open ended and closed ended question.

Facilitative skills (techniques) are empathy, understanding, non-judgemental, supportive, lecturing, and suggestions.

Stages of counselling are as follows:
Building rapport- knowing family background like age, place, education, culture, etc.
Assessments of the problem- focus on the story of the person using skills.
Goal setting - by both client and counsellor.
Intervention - processing using skills and techniques. The insight will be towards wholeness and holiness, self actualization, total well being, faith.
Termination - in which confirm the insight with SPAM- Specific Pertain able Attainable Measurable.
Feed back/ evaluation- from both the client and counsellor.
Back home / follow up.

Three theories of counselling that were dealt with are as follows:
(a) Alfred Adler - (Behaviour) is directly connected to our organism. It focuses on Body, mind and behaviour and birth order.

(b) Carl Roger: (Affective) - Person centred counselling. Potentialities within, moving forward. The Role of the counsellor is to bridge the gap between the ideal and real from incongruent to congruent.

(c) Albert Ellis (Cognition) - People are rational or irrational beings. They have all the capacity to solve their own problem. It deals with REBT - Rational Emotive Belief Theory. It brings to the awareness that our core belief leader to blame game which leader to self defeating thought. The person difficulties are expressed in formula, that is Activating event, Belief, Consequence Distortion Effectiveness Forward moving. The consequences can be motivational or demotivational.

We really appreciate Sr. Juliana for her dedicated service and made us the worthy counsellors to the people in need especially the young people who are in difficult situations. We are really enriched and enlightened by this course. We are grateful to Rev. Fr. Sagaya John the Director, other Fathers, sisters and brothers who helped us in all the ways by their word and deed. May God bless them and reward their sacrifices.

Counselling skills

Counselling skills