This is a comprehensive short course in counselling for those who help people either voluntarily or in the course of their job, vocation or profession. The course is suitable for charity volunteers, nurses, care workers, advice workers, pastors, teachers, doctors, social workers, community workers, police officers, probation officers, lawyers, complementary medicine practitioners, coaches, hypnotherapists, funeral directors, managers, hairdressers, beauticians and anyone who finds him/herself often in the position of listening to other people's problems without a qualification in counseling.

Qualified counsellors and psychotherapists will also benefit from this unit, as a refresher and as an appreciation of the common-sense and human core of basic counseling which can be forgotten by those whose training depends heavily on techniques or giving information.

This unit focuses on such issues as the nature of the counseling relationship, what to do and what not to do, the process of listening, and when to reveal one's own feelings. It also provides a useful overview of professional diagnosis, and of what every helper should know about diagnosis, drugs and alcohol, seriously disturbed people, depression, stress, personality disorders, counseling persons with sexual problems, HIV/AIDS patients, suicide, death and emergencies.

Course website http://www.ukcollege-holistic.co.uk/introcouns.html