Counselling Time: Lesson Two

Well i have been totally pants at keeping up to date with all my counselling notes, not good for my goals in personal development at all. Well they are there to be changed and improved throughout these two years of the course and rest of my life, so i will try not to be too hard on myself. The cupboard monster (the mother) being in hospital doesn't help, but she is a big reason for me doing this course and excuses don't help anyone, especially not me.
Now that college is two nights a week, we don't half cover a lot and i dread to miss even one night. Its not just the notes that one might miss, it the thoughts and opinions that are bounced around as each subject is covered. So i hope i don't get the nasty flu that has been wiping people out at the moment.

I have also decided to be more proactive on this course and nominated myself to be student rep, quickly followed by everyone going 'yeah let Claire do it', is it because they know i am addicted to the internet and don't mind typing up notes? So any problems with the course will be filter through me to the higher powers. This usually means someone fighting for more books in the library and a better selection of sandwiches in the cafe.

Here is a brief summary of what we have covered so far on the course and the what i will be going over in more detail as and when time allows.

1. An introduction to the huge! 'WHO AM I' project that we will spending the whole two years of the course figuring out and completing. In this project you really have to peel back the layers and get to your 'core self', it sounds all deep and mystical at the moment but hopefully it will make more sense as the course goes on. You have to connect the emotional side of yourself and relate it to the more theoretical side of counselling, from Freud to Jung to Rogers and many more. This is a very big project so i will be posting the main questions that the project consists of and you can see what you think.

2. As part of the ongoing search to find out 'WHO AM I' we had to design a Shield/Coat of Arms, that consisted of 3/4 things that represent yourself and a motto. I will do a post on this and show you what i came up. Maybe you will fancy having a go yourself?

3.The Core Conditions have been discussed, I thought i had posted about this in more detail previously but i guess i didn't. So another thing to post about.

4. Constructs, these are the layers that you have to peel away in order to find the 'core' or 'real' you. In class we had to do some diagrams on flip paper, so i need to transfer that onto the computer to explain further what we did.

5. UPR, Unconditional Positive Regard, including a role play to show how affective UPR is in counselling. Role Play is not my favourite type of thing, in fact i hate it! But it certainly helps you practice your listening skills and shows you were you are going wrong. Also it is one of the Core Conditions, so you will hear lots more about this.

6. Organisational Constructs, these come in the form of anything from Education to Religion and impact on your life in a big way. This was definitely an eye opener for me and yet again some flip chart work need to be transferred to the computer to talk about this some more.

7. Congruence and Immediacy, What are they? and how are they relevant to counselling?

Well thats my brief summary of what we have done so far on the course, more meat will be added to all that i have mentioned and there will be lots more to come.

PS. remember to click the counselling time button either at the top of this post or top of right sidebar, if you would like to read my other counselling homework posts :)