The Level 2 course, which launched at the local college last year, produced 22 graduates this January. So far, enrolment for Level 3 in September is promising \u2018a big group\u2019 of keen students, with applications flooding in.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Guernsey college hasn\u2019t run this before,\u2019 said course tutor Jana Noyon, who has worked at TGI for more than 20 years, teaching 16- to 19-year-olds office administration. <\/p>\n
After studying counselling skills herself, as a way to develop as a teacher, she and her colleague, Lucy Mallett \u2013 who also took the course \u2013 decided to introduce it to the island\u2019s college curriculum. <\/p>\n
She is now the co-tutor, along with TGI\u2019s resident psychotherapist Karla Rumens.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s become such a popular course and I think that\u2019s due to a growing awareness of mental health issues and an increasing wish to talk and share,\u2019 said Ms Noyon.<\/p>\n
\u2018This course enables you to use the skills for active listening to help in everyday life. It\u2019s really transferable and some people do it purely for personal development. <\/p>\n
\u2018Now we\u2019re moving on to Level 3 in September, and I\u2019m tutoring Level 2 again in March. It\u2019s been fantastic, the students rave about it. A lot of them said it was almost life-changing. It\u2019s really lovely to see them grow in understanding of themselves and others, and watch all these light bulb moments that pop up throughout the year. I think the biggest one that hits first is not to give advice. You\u2019re not the expert in someone else\u2019s life \u2013 they are. You\u2019re there to listen.\u2019<\/p>\n
The course is designed to provide knowledge and the ability to use counselling skills in a variety of contexts and roles. Though ideal for those considering a future in counselling professionally \u2013 many of the local graduates joined the course to enhance their everyday life. This includes 51-year-old Mich Le Messurier, who works as a financial administrator.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s been really helpful,\u2019 she said. \u2018I\u2019ve got OCD, and the course has given me more understanding about my perceptions, why I behave the way I do. We also learned about active listening, which has been so useful in general life. <\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s been great for work, for personal life \u2013 it\u2019s just given me so many new skills which I hadn\u2019t expected to come out with.\u2019<\/p>\n
A large part of the course requires students to explore their own emotional and behavioural patterns, through journalling. No one is required to share this work, but the personal therapy is an important aspect of the training, as counsellors need to understand themselves, before they can help others.<\/p>\n
\u2018It was probably more in depth than I expected,\u2019 said Mrs Le Messurier.<\/p>\n
\u2018But actually, I got a lot out of it and I know a lot of the others on the course did too. Having had therapy and counselling myself, mental health has become a subject that I\u2019ve been really interested in. Going back into a school environment, I didn\u2019t know what to expect. <\/p>\n
\u2018It was very new and different, and that initial change to my routine actually triggered my OCD. But because of the nature of the course, I was able to be honest about that and talk about how I was feeling. With all the cathartic journal writing and group discussion, I noticed that now, I\u2019ve massively gained confidence in myself. It\u2019s been such a good personal journey.\u2019<\/p>\n
Jodie London, who also works full-time in finance, is hoping to develop her skills this year, with aspirations to one day change career paths.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ultimately I\u2019d really like to work in counselling,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018But I\u2019m not qualified yet. I\u2019m hoping to get on the Level 3 course in September. It\u2019ll be a heavier workload, but I\u2019ll just get up early to study before work, and at the weekend, and I take advantage of the library\u2019s late-night openings. <\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s a dedication but it\u2019s something that I really enjoy. And as a mum, I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s really helped with having conversations. <\/p>\n
‘It made me realise that sometimes you can be too quick to jump in with advice, and actually, you form a better bond by just sitting down and using active listening skills \u2013 empowering people to find the solution themselves.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Level 2 course, which launched at the local college last year, produced 22 graduates this January. So…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-321050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}