Introduction

If you are involved in any form of helping relationship – for example, nursing, teaching, support work, youth work or pastoral care – and want to develop your listening and communication skills, this course is for you.  It is also a suitable introductory course for those who are considering training as counsellors.

The course is open to anyone who has an interest in working with people.  You do not need any previous experience of listening to or supporting others.  It is, however, important to recognise that a small part of the content of this course is Christian in its perspective and that in addition to covering the same ground that any good listening skills course would address, we also include topics that will be particularly relevant for those working in a pastoral context.

Good listening lies at the heart of any effective helping relationship and this course will enable you to identify and develop the skills you already have as well as to acquire new ones.  You will explore the personal qualities needed to be a good listener, you will learn about the importance of listening to yourself as well as to others and you will be invited to embark on a gently challenging journey of self-discovery.

You will be introduced to a range of basic listening skills and will also have the opportunity to explore some of the difficulties and sensitive issues you may encounter as a listener, such as maintaining confidentiality, holding appropriate boundaries and dealing with people’s defences.

What form will the sessions take?

This is a 12-week training course that will take place on Wednesday evenings from 16th September to 9th December 2020, with a half term break on 28th October.

Each session will last for two and a half hours – from 6.30pm to 9.00pm – and will begin with a theoretical seminar (involving short teaching sessions, small group discussions and skills demonstrations).  This will be followed by a short coffee break, and then a listening skills practice session in small groups led by a facilitator.  Here you will have the opportunity of listening to each other in order to practise and develop the skills you are learning.

What additional work will I be asked to do?

You are asked to keep a personal learning journal throughout the course in order to encourage you to reflect on your learning experiences.  You are also required to do a small amount of preparatory reading before each session.

In addition, you have the opportunity to complete three short written assignments – an essay and a personal development profile (both 1,000 words) and a brief self-assessment of your listening skills. All participants will receive an Attendance Certificate, but If you choose not to complete any or all of the written work, this will be reflected in the accompanying transcript.

How much does the course cost?

Course fee:       £225 per person

The fee can be paid in one lump sum or in three instalments. Payments may be made by electronic bank transfer or by cheque (payable to “Network Counselling & Training Ltd”).

If the cost is a prohibitive factor for you, please contact the Head of Training (training@network.org.uk) to enquire about grants available.

If you would like to apply, please contact training@network.org.uk

“Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.” Viktor Frankl

Drawn from his observations and experience in Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War, Frankl believed that a person’s deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. It is that sense that can sustain someone in the most difficult of situations.

How many of our clients are involved in that very same search for meaning and purpose in the circumstances they find themselves in? They don’t understand why they feel anxious and depressed. Perhaps they are struggling to make sense of the past, they may be feeling suicidal and can’t see a reason to live, perhaps life has lost its purpose following a loss. Can counselling bring hope to these clients?  In this workshop we will consider why meaning matters and how we can enable our clients to find meaning in their circumstances.

Facilitator: Louise Mill is currently Course Leader on the Advanced Certificate course at Network. With over fourteen years of counselling experience, and until recently Network’s Head of Counselling, Louise has been involved in training for the past ten years, both as Course Leader on the Certificate in Counselling Skills course and in running courses and training days at Network and in the community.

Venue:  Network Counselling & Training , Elm Park, Filton, Bristol BS34 7PS.  Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided during the day, but you will need to provide your own lunch. There are a number of convenience stores and food outlets in the neighbourhood, and we have kitchen facilities on site.

Cost: £85 per person – or £55 per person for students, volunteer counsellors and volunteer supervisors. “Early bird discount” of £10 for bookings made and paid for by Friday 31st January 2020.

If you would like to book a place, please go to The Little Box Office, or down load a booking form here:

CPD 20B Meaning Matters – Booking Form

Download a flyer here: CPD 20B Meaning Matters – A5 Flyer

Cancellation: you may cancel your booking up to seven days’ prior to the day of the workshop, otherwise the full fee will be payable. No part of the fee can be refunded for non-attendance on the day.

Image: Robert Martin, used with permission.

“…the goal the individual most wishes to achieve, the end which he knowingly and unknowingly pursues, is to become himself.”

(Carl Rogers)

Introduction

The journey towards knowing ourselves is on-going. It is a process of becoming; a journey towards greater self-awareness, self-understanding and self-acceptance.

Following on from Network’s increasingly popular introductory courses, this exciting new course builds on some of the self-awareness that students began to explore in Being There and A Way of Being. Its aim is to develop increased levels of awareness, understanding and acceptance of self. It is suitable for:

• Those who have completed A Way Of Being and wish to continue with the self-awareness journey they started on the course. (NB: Attendance on a previous Network course is not a requirement for joining On Becoming A Person.)
• Those who are considering counselling training and want to find out more about the personal development aspect of counsellor training.
• Anyone who is interested in getting to know themselves better, or who may be tired of being who others expect or want them to be and are seeking to live more authentically as themselves.

Students will be invited to consider such questions as:

• Who am I ?
• How do I relate to others?
• How can I practice self compassion?

“Perhaps the journey is not so much about becoming anything. Maybe its about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”

(Summersaldana.com)

What form will the sessions take?

This is a 12-week training course that will take place on Wednesday evenings from 22nd April to 15th July 2020, with a half term break on 27th May.

Each session will last for two and a half hours – from 6.30pm to 9.00pm, with a short coffee break halfway through.

The learning will be largely experiential and interactive: involving both individual and small group work.

What additional work will I be asked to do?

You are asked to keep a personal learning journal throughout the course in order to encourage you to reflect on your learning experiences. There may be a small amount of preparatory work before each session.

In addition, you have the opportunity to complete a personal development profile (of 1,500 words). All participants will receive an Attendance Certificate, but If you choose not to complete any or all of the written work, this will be reflected in the accompanying transcript.

How much does the course cost?

Course fee: £240 per person

The fee can be paid in one lump sum or in three instalments. Payments may be made by electronic bank transfer or cheque (made payable to “Network Counselling & Training Ltd”). 

If the cost is a prohibitive factor for you, please contact the Head of Training (training@network.org.uk) to enquire about grants available.

Cancellation policy: If a confirmed place is cancelled by the student up to 14 days prior to the start of the course a refund of the full amount (minus deposit of £25) will be made. After 14 days prior to the start of the course the full fee remains payable. If the course is cancelled by Network at any point, all fees will be refunded.

How do I apply?

Please download and complete the application form, then send to the Training Coordinator at the address on the form, or by email to: training@network.org.uk.  Once your application is approved, we will confirm and send details on how to make payment.

Download application form here: 2020 OBP Application Form

Download a flyer here: 2020 OBP A5 flyer

“Whichever way you breathe, that is the way you think. Whichever way you think, that is the way you breathe.” Sadhguru 

How we breathe has a direct effect on our mood, and understanding this relationship can be empowering for both the client and therapist.

This training will:

• Understand the physiology of breathing;
• Learn how to breath more efficiently ;
• Explore the benefits for health and wellbeing;
• Explore different way we can apply breathing techniques to influence our nervous system;
• Understand how this can be used in a therapeutic session

Josie will use a combination of learning styles to help to facilitate an understanding of the relationship we have with our own breath, how to help clients to use their breath as a tool to manage emotional overwhelm and empower them to feel more confident with their emotions and experience them is a less threatening way.

Facilitator: Josie Harrington worked as a senior mental health nurse in the NHS for over 20 years and enjoyed many varied roles working with both adults, young people and their families, with a wide range of difficulties in community and residential settings.

Josie is an advanced Yoga Teacher (500 hour) – she studied in Bristol for three years at Yogasara Academy. She is qualified yoga therapist (Yoga Therapist for mental health, Minded Institute, London).

She is now working full time as a yoga teacher and therapist bringing together her two passions of Yoga and Mental Health. She combines these skills, knowledge and passion to support individuals using an empowering holistic approach to health and wellbeing (www.yogajosie.co.uk).

Venue:  Network Counselling & Training , Elm Park, Filton, Bristol BS34 7PS.  Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided during the day, but you will need to provide your own lunch. There are a number of convenience stores and food outlets in the neighbourhood, and we have kitchen facilities on site.

Cost: £85 per person – or £55 per person for students, volunteer counsellors and volunteer supervisors. “Early bird discount” of £10 for bookings made and paid for by Friday 20th March 2020.

If you would like to book a place, please go to The Little Box Office, or down load a booking form here:

CPD 20C Breathing – Booking Form

Download a flyer here: CPD 20C Breathing – A5 Flyer

Cancellation: you may cancel your booking up to seven days’ prior to the day of the workshop, otherwise the full fee will be payable. No part of the fee can be refunded for non-attendance on the day.

At the heart of this workshop, we will seek to understand how we are impacted by ‘difference’.

There will be an opportunity to begin a conversation about difference and our responses to this often, challenging topic. The aim of this workshop is to push back the barriers preventing all of us from openly exchanging dialogues regarding the more separative and frequently isolating aspects of living with difference – some of which, sadly, result in a sense of exclusion.   We will explore what these barriers might be? From my own lived experience, some are in plain view whilst others are not that easy to detect, and instead, tend to remain unvoiced and dormant beneath everyday awareness.

At the outset, it’s worth mentioning that a sense of ‘difference’ occurs when someone becomes acutely aware that they are not comfortably embedded with the group in which they find themselves.   On this basis, I want to say that there are many different types of groups, as ‘difference’ covers a vastly wide-range – such as cultural, racial, gender issues and disabilities: to name just a few.

Not having awareness of this can result in a lack of interpersonal understanding which can incapacitate ease of communication. Furthermore, this can hinder our potential for understanding and so often lead to silence – to become voiceless. Unfortunately, this often shuts down opportunities that can lead to fruitful dialogues and thus deepen the conversation which can lead to a better understanding of ‘difference’.

The workshop will offer a chance to explore our practice and think about the diversity within ourselves and our clients. For those of you working in services which aim to support individuals from diverse backgrounds, we will discuss the complexities that can arise and how we can manage these.

In the past when I have run this workshop, there have been a fascinating range of responses – quite diverse. Not surprising as each individual will come to this topic from different perspectives. I anticipate this, and welcome it.

By and large, the tilt of this workshop is ‘psycho – social’, by this I mean, we all have fears of how we may not be willing or unable to relate to another from a different social/cultural setting – this of course, is not always in our awareness.   However, my aim is that this workshop will encompass a multi-disciplinary approach and so offer many things, including an opportunity to develop intercultural awareness, coupled with a reflective space and personal development.

I hope too, that individuals will use this to opportunity to come together, so we can ‘hear’ the tones of our differences in their various contexts, understand ourselves better, and therefore, become better equipped to support those who are ethnically and culturally different from us.

Facilitator: Ounkar Kaur is a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist currently working in the private and voluntary sector with adults experiencing mental health issues. She has been involved in the field of mental health since 1995 and has worked with adult patients experiencing issues such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, grief and loss, forced marriage, intergenerational concerns and OCD. Other therapeutic methods include Integrative, Humanistic/Person Centred, and Intercultural Psychotherapy.

Ounkar has previously set up a counselling service for women from the South Asian community, in addition to this, she is an accredited Race Equality Trainer offering diversity training and workshops covering a range of topics. She is a member of the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy and is registered with The British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) and has a private practice in central Bristol.

Venue: Network Counselling & Training , Elm Park, Filton, Bristol BS34 7PS.  Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided during the day, but you will need to provide your own lunch. There are a number of convenience stores and food outlets in the neighbourhood, and we have kitchen facilities on site.

Cost: £85 per person – or £55 per person for students, volunteer counsellors and volunteer supervisors. “Early bird discount” of £10 for bookings made and paid for by Friday 1st May 2020.

If you would like to book a place, please go to The Little Box Office, or down load a booking form here:

CPD 20D Difference – Booking Form

Download a flyer here: CPD 20D Difference – A5 Flyer

Cancellation: you may cancel your booking up to seven days’ prior to the day of the workshop, otherwise the full fee will be payable. No part of the fee can be refunded for non-attendance on the day.