Hello, it is my privilege to be the online counsellor for OLT. Students can have five sessions online with me paid for by OLT. They can chose which way we work, email, skype instant messaging or skype video. Some students choose to try a mix as we work so that they can experience the differences and similarities. One of the key differences when we work is that the pace can be variable, there are not set times and deadlines as there are with the course tasks.
When I was a student with OLT I decided to have some counselling online so that I could ‘feel’ what it was really like versus the role-plays of coursework. As I worked with my counsellor I was able to access something from childhood that had not emerged in face to face counselling. That was wonderful – I was hooked. This has led me to here as part of my work nowadays.
As I feel sure you know when as adults we go back into a learning situation we can feel very de-skilled and vulnerable. Past ‘stuff’ comes up just when we don’t want it to as we are so busy with the demands of the course on top of the rest of our lives. This coupled with the challenges of the course tasks and portfolio can seem overwhelming.
Working with students in this place, being alongside them when they feel for example ‘I cannot do this’, ‘I’m not good enough’ and helping them to regain their confidence is very rewarding.
I work in an integrative way, and love exploring the different ways each client likes to work, using visualisations, drawings, pictures metaphors as appropriate. Gestalt two chair work can be very effective online too. It is lovely when we end our work to have students say they are now more grounded and have gained new insights through our work. One even went as far as to say ‘I have had lots of f2f counselling but this has been the only counselling that has really helped’. For some the five sessions is enough, others choose to continue working with me and paying privately.
As a firm believer that to be able to work with others effectively we need to look after ourselves, self-care is often central to our work which of course is confidential. The only time I give any information to course leaders is when YOU ask me to confirm how many sessions we have had for your portfolio.
Warm wishes
Jacqui
onlinetrainingforcounsellors 