Like most interpersonal relationships, most romantic couples experience some challenge at some point in their relationship. Some of these common challenges may include infidelity, loss of intimacy, communication difficulties, coping with stress challenges, financial pressures, boundary violations, difficulty balancing individual and couple expectations, divorce, separation and breaking up. Whateve... »
Below are examples of some useful techniques in grief counselling that stem from a range of different theoretical frames. »
Consider this situation: John and Sue-Anne are both in their late twenties and have been married for 19 months. As a young couple they have had a lot of fun with their friends spending weekends surfing and most evenings at each other’s places. Just recently their life has entered a transition as their best friends have become parents and are no longer free to share activities with them. And at the... »
The death of a loved one is always difficult. For children, the death of a loved one can affect their sense of security. Like adults, children express loss by grieving and yet children may not demonstrate their grief openly as adults. Grief may affect their behaviour, the way in which they take in information, and their need for support. »
Social skills include the ways in which the child relates to others in order to make friends, get their needs met, be assertive, employ boundaries and cooperate. In order to develop social skills effectively, it is important that the child understands and experiences different behaviours and their consequences. To achieve this in play therapy, a therapist may use the following activities: »
Like all groups, therapeutic groups change and evolve over time. Knowledge of group development can help the group therapist distinguish if members reflect personal and individual or group developmental issues. Furthermore, knowledge of how members cope in the face of group developmental issues can aid the therapist in formulating specific interventions at those times (Bernard, Burlingame, Flores,... »
Although there are exceptions most couples would agree that for a relationship to thrive and bring out the best in both partners trust is an essential prerequisite. In the previous two articles on trust we have discussed some strategies that if implemented in the early days of your relationship can help create a respectful and trusting environment that will nurture and support your relationship th... »
Verbal and nonverbal feedback from clinical supervisors allows the supervisee to form an opinion about how they are going in their growth and development as a practitioner. Feedback offers clarity on specific areas, for example, on how well they might be applying micro-counselling skills or on the depth, quality and accuracy of individual case conceptualisation. »
Over time, the distinction between the three terms, stress, traumatic stress, and crisis, have become blurred, thus numerous professionals started using these terms synonymously. Some authors specifically indicate that they deal with both stress and developmental crisis, but do not make distinctions between these terms/concepts. Others define their work as dealing with crisis, but take cases from ... »
Sue and Tom lost their child Jill to leukaemia approximately one year ago. Tom suggested that Sue attend Professional Counselling because she still doesn’t seem to be able to cope with everyday living. For ease of writing the Professional Counsellor is abbreviated to C. »
Simone’s Employment Support Worker has arranged for her to receive counselling, with her consent, to assist her day and residential service provider to ascertain the cause of her recent behaviour change. Staff have observed that Simone is increasingly lethargic and withdrawn. An assessment by her GP eliminated any physical cause. The GP noted that while there was no evidence of depression, Simone ... »
Eifert, Georg H. Ph. D., and Forsyth, John P. Ph. D. 2005. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications Inc. »
After having overviewed basic steps that can be taken to provide a foundation of trust in your relationship (Part 1), you will now explore a number of common reasons that trust is broken. Some of these may not be new to you. I like to believe that the trust established at the start of most relationships can go the distance and survive the natural life of a marriage. And of course this is the case ... »
Counselling supervisors have the responsibility to provide ongoing training in the context of related supervised experiences to enable supervisees to deliver effective and ethical services. Because of this, supervisors must be well trained, knowledgeable and skilled in the practice of their profession and in clinical supervision. Failure to have appropriate supervision experience will make it diff... »
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