This is a 5 week course starting in April 2011 and September 2011, students that successfully complete this course will qualify to enrol on the more advanced counselling courses.

The course will introduce the student to the basic principles of counselling and the core techniques such as learning to actively listen, to really understand what a client is saying and to help the client make action plans that will enable change for the better.

We will learn about transference and counter transference, unconditional positive regard, defence mechanisms such as repression, denial and projection.

You will be introduced to the theories in counselling that have brought us to where we are in the profession today. These include:

* Person Centred Counselling - Carl Rogers

* Psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud 

* Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT) - Albert Ellis, which is the foundation for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

* Transactional Analysis - EricBerne 

* The Spiritual Element - Carl Jung

This course provides a good grounding foundation for the counselling student to build on in their jouney to become a qualified counsellor.