The Student Counselling Service

1. Solihull College The Student Counselling Service

2. Things to cover • Explain what counselling is. • Explain the role and of the counsellor • The skills used. • Describe the context of Solihull’s Counselling Service. • Discuss accountability through use of information and data – their relationships with confidentiality – offer examples of documentation.

3. What is the Purpose of Counselling? Students … process lots of different emotions as a result of past and present life experiences and changes. Sometimes these emotions become so big and complex that they interfere with happiness and clear thinking. This makes academic study much more difficult and learning becomes impaired. Counselling provides a safe place in which students can talk about and explore difficult feelings and relationships. They may be helped to minimise their emotional turmoil and may be able to understand and accept themselves and others more easily. This can produce more balanced emotions and clearer thinking. LEARNING can continue again … and success achieved.

4. Who Are We? • Ralph Williams. Tel. 0121 678 7219 ralph.williams@solihull.ac.uk “Everyone seems normal until you get to know them”

5. The Student Counselling Service What does the Counselling Service offer?

6. One to One sessions We offer … • Drop-in Welfare – an unplanned opportunity for students to meet informally, in order to talk to someone about an issue of concern. • Booked Appointments – students come to room for private and confidential sessions with a counsellor.

7. What happens in booked appointments? • Assessment of client issues and suitability for counselling. • Listening skills used in order to hear what the issues are, the depth and impact of feelings in relation to the clients own perception of the causes. (client focus) • Communicate understanding through active listening. • Develop trust through offering conditions such as empathic understanding, acceptance and non-judgement, (using verbal skills to communicate these.) • Establish an empathic, therapeutic relationship. • Challenge inconsistency of feelings, thinking & behaviour as appropriate. • The client moves on in their self awareness and perception of their world. • Clients accept a new view of “self” and make changes to their own feelings, thinking & behaviour. All in ONE session? …. I don’t think so!!

8. We Offer Group Workshops where students … • Discuss feelings and thoughts about a range of different issues through an interactive process within peer groups. • Facilitator models the use of interpersonal skills. • Group learns experientially and are enabled to gain new insights about themselves in relation to others. • Students learn and use relationship building skills (listening skills important). • Develop awareness of self and acceptance of others (similarity & difference). • Students enabled to develop an understanding about the theme being discussed and use interpersonal skills.

9. Workshops for Students • Student problems and asking for help • Bullying - through case study and role play. • Stress and anxiety management. • Exam stress, time management & revision techniques. • Interpersonal skills. • Group dynamics.

10. Support for Staff We aim to … Offer a consultancy process for tutors and support staff who work directly with students. • Reduce staff anxiety by helping them to consider the boundaries around their role. • Provide help with decisions about what staff may or may not be able to safely offer. • Suggest internal and external routes of referral of students in difficulty. • Provide discussion forum for what might be a student’s issue.

11. Links with outside agencies We aim to … • Evaluate and provide information about the suitability and availability of agencies providing specialised, additional external support. • Provide, develop and make available information for better understanding of issues and difficulties that might be experienced by college students. • Provide and develop methods of referral through to specialised agencies and health services.

12. Use of Counselling Data The Counselling Service provides data for the college in order to: • To evaluate the student experience within Counselling. • Examine trends and changes in its use by clients. • To be able to place the work of the service into the context of the whole of Student Services. • To produce planning and development options.

13. Data Collection - K.P.I’s Key Performance Indicators (K.P.I.’s) • Every half term data is provided which summarises patterns in use of the different services provided. • The figures reflect the uptake of appointments /drop-in / workshops etc. • Figures reflect generic categories of students accessing the service, e.g. age range / gender / ethnic origin / part & full time etc. • Figures reflecting generic patterns of sources of referral such as Tutor Assistants / faculties etc. • Different proportions of client issues

14. Data Collection - Student Satisfaction Survey Evaluation questionnaires are used anonymously to sample student opinion of their experience of: … the first counselling session … and also at the planned end of counselling.

15. Data Collection – I.D.’s • A list of Client I.D.’s are provided at the end of the year to be added to similar data from other student service providers. These can be used by central data to look at overall patterns of student uptake of Student support.

16. Data Collection – Annual Report • A detailed report is published in July each year where changes, trends and patterns of counselling work are analysed. • Causes and implications for the service in the past year are reviewed and discussed. • Proposals for any future developments are drafted.

17. Case Studies • Anonymous case studies are written and used as a confidential window into the counselling room. • These can be used to explain details of how the process works. • Use of examples of client issues: e.g. symptoms / behaviours / emotional and cognitive changes / improved client functioning / outcomes. • Highlighted counsellor skills by describing interventions: e.g. empathic connections / immediacy / counsellor - client dynamics / challenges made to clients.

18. Support for Counsellors • An experienced counselling coordinator. • Regular counselling team meetings. • Regular paid for supervision (team / individual). • Weekly discussion between coordinator and manager. • Coordinators meetings with other student services. • Staff professional development. • College pays for BACP organisational membership. • Agreed/Shared understanding of boundaries around confidentiality.

19. Any Questions?