Counsellor Development Ireland is the first service of its kind in Ireland. While our primary focus is on facilitating personal development therapy for trainees and students of counselling and psychotherapy, this counselling practice is open to all potential private clients in the traditional sense (see About Psychotherapy).
As educational courses become more intensive, longer and with higher fees, many potentially able counsellors can become excluded. In addition, personal development therapy, which is a requirement of most credible accrediting bodies can be a painful and unanticipated expense. Counsellor Development Ireland was set up to address this additional challenge faced by students/trainees of counselling and psychotherapy.
While we are based in Waterford City, we offer a nationwide teletherapy service via Skype, thus allowing us to keep your fees down and eliminate your costs further in terms of travel time and expenses.
Personal development for students and trainees through individual exploration:
“Personal development is not an event but a process, life-long and career-long: it must and will happen incidentally before and after any training course, through all aspects of life and work”.
(Hazel Johns, in Personal Development in Counsellor Training, 2012).
So argues Johns in her conviction that in counselling training this development should be focused, integrated and at the centre of our learning journey in becoming counsellors and psychotherapists.
In practically all approaches to counselling, it is generally accepted that the relationship between client and counsellor is of key importance to positive outcomes. Therefore, we must ask ourselves “who am I, and who can I be for others?”, and acknowledge that our “self” is our primary instrument as helpers.
Becoming More Self-Aware
Because of the intimately private counselling work that qualified counsellors and psychotherapists do with clients, it is vitally important that a counselling professional is fully self-aware. Being able to self-reflect enables a counsellor to identify and develop personal awareness, and to remain emotionally detached from the relationship he/she is developing with a client.
Self-awareness is something that grows over a period of time and with exploration. Techniques, to access information about oneself, can be learned, and personal experiences can affect personal thoughts and feelings. A counsellor will experience all of these issues and concerns, and must use the knowledge gained to help their clients overcome their own personal issues.
Throughout a counsellor’s training he/she will be exposed to a series of opportunities that will allow them to question their own beliefs, awareness and values, and how these impact on their personal lives, work and others. It is this self-awareness and self-knowledge that forms the foundation of their counselling career.
A person’s growth and understanding can only be assessed through self-awareness, and it is no different for those working in a therapeutic profession. Being continually open to personal, and career, development will help a counsellor fully understand their values and self.