This photocopiable resource is a practical training tool for use by trainers running any type of counseling skills workshop. The early chapters of this resource identify some of the theoretical aspects of counseling skills training. Chapter 1 is about counseling itself. Chapter 2 identifies the elements that go to making up counseling training, while Chapter 3 identifies ways of evaluating counseling skills courses and workshops. To evaluate is to improve the next time round.
Counseling is an evolving field of study and of practice.
Chapters 4 and 5 offer a series of checklists which cover most aspects of the process of setting up counseling skills training. They offer a useful and 'shorthand' method of identifying what you need to think about when planning and running a course or workshop. Counseling can never be taught simply through lecturing or even only through discussion. At some point, people have to try out what they have been talking about. Experiential leaning methods offer a practical way of learning from expert experience.