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Personal Effectiveness

Albert Ellis, Rational and Irrational Beliefs

Albert Ellis was born in Pittsburg (1913). He spent most of his life in New York. A natural counsellor, Ellis studied psychoanalysis and was supervised by a training analyst. Ellis, however, grew increasingly frustrated by psychoanalysis which he concluded was unscientific and superficial (Corey, 2005). In the early 1950s, Ellis experimented with other treatment frameworks, […]

How Can Clients Become More Assertive?

It is beneficial for clients who are struggling with passive or aggressive communication to be encouraged by counsellors to become more assertive. In this post we outline a step-by-step process to teach clients assertiveness skills. Step one: Assessment of current communication style The first step in teaching a client to become more assertive is for […]

What is Burnout?

Burnout is a syndrome which occurs due to prolonged emotional strain of dealing extensively with other human beings, particularly in helper and recipient relationships. Burnout is categorised as a type of stress. Unlike normal workplace stress which predominately affects individuals physically, burnout affects individuals emotionally. The term burnout was introduced in the 1970’s, and although […]

Eleven Ways to Become a Better Counsellor

What can counsellors do to become better professionals, and ultimately help improve the quality of life of their clients? In this post, we explore 11 ways – both direct and indirect – that counsellors can boost their practical skills and expertise. #1 Work on Your Microskills Counselling Microskills include Focusing, Encouragers, Paraphrasing and Summarising, Questioning, […]

Dealing Effectively with Loneliness

Loneliness is such a subjective concept and what really is important here is the degree to which loneliness is affecting one’s life and/or a family’s life where relevant. What age is the person, because life goals and needs are often quite different for different age groups and for people with different priorities at different stages […]

Loneliness, Depression and Negative Thinking Patterns

In the previous post we explored some aspects of both loneliness and depression. The causes of each often have their basic roots in the way that modern life has progressed, particularly where ways of protecting oneself against being alone, feeling down and worthless and so on have been eroded. Isolation from others (geographic, social, emotional), […]

Negotiation Skills Training in Counselling

Negotiation is defined by the Macquarie Dictionary (1998) as ‘to confer (with another) with a view to agreement’. There are no formal rules governing how these negotiations are to be conducted, although there are culturally accepted styles or approaches for doing so. What negotiation and conflict have in common? The obvious common denominator in negotiation […]

Time Management and Goal Setting

Allen (2001) explains that the essence of time management is completing decisions and determining action steps about the things that capture our psychological and physical space. To cope with everyday demands, Allen has suggested a processing sequence of work and tasks: Collect all situations, projects and tasks that need to be done, including those that […]

What are Mastermind Groups?

In 1908, the richest man in the world at the time, the famous steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, commissioned Napoleon Hill to interview and study the 504 most successful people of the day. The objective was to distil which attributes these highly successful business pioneers had in common. Hills resulting book, “Think and Grow Rich”, came […]

What is Assertiveness?

Assertiveness is the ability to express one’s feelings, opinions, beliefs and needs directly, openly and honestly, assert one’s rights whilst respecting the feelings and rights of another (Lloyd, 1998). Non-assertive individuals may be passive, aggressive or passive-aggressive. Passive clients appear to be unconcerned with their own rights and are more likely to allow others to […]

Series: Coping with Sudden Unemployment

Unfortunately ‘organisational restructuring’ and ‘downsizing’ are common events in today’s workplace. For those individuals who suddenly lose their job, financial pressures can be overwhelming. Most support individuals receive focus on supporting the individual financially. However even under the best conditions where someone has ample savings and decent job prospects, suddenly losing a job is an […]