The Institute of Distance Learning (IDL) in partnership with the Counselling Centre of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has organized a one-day course for IDL Zonal Coordinators at the Amonoo Neizer Conference Centre. The goal of the course was to familiarize participants with basic counselling skills so that they could give counseling services to staff and students in their respective zones.
Professor Matthew Glover Addo, Director of IDL, began the meeting by thanking the Zonal Coordinators for their sacrifices in bringing the Institute to its current position in their different zones and centers. According to the Director, University Management places a high importance on students’ psychological well-being, making it important to teach front-line employees in basic counselling skills so that they may identify students and staff who may require counseling and refer them to professional treatment. ‘As a result, Management designed a training program to provide you with the required competencies to provide first-aid psychological support,’ he explained.
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The Director urged the participants to take advantage of the occasion and contribute their technical experience to the Institute’s support systems.
Mrs. Victoria De-Graft Agyei, Head of KNUST Counselling Centre (KCC), walked participants through the mirror concept, what counselling is and isn’t, therapy techniques/skills, and traits for effective counselling.
Counseling, she claims, strives to provide an individual with the tools they need to improve themselves and change their behavior. She emphasized the need of knowing the various skills in counselling and applying them to the intended objectives as a therapist. She also asked counsellors to recognize their clients’ variety and to recognize that there are no universally accepted definitions for behavior.
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She stated that a good counsellor should be informed, resourceful, amusing, sensitive to other people’s perspectives, warm, trustworthy, attentive, and appreciative when it comes to the traits of a counsellor.
Other professional counsellors of the University took participants through an introduction to the helping process, counselling ethics, and identifying students in distress: protocols for reporting and referencing students in distress.