COUNSELING, INTERVIEWING AND RECORDING SKILLS

ATTRAINING OF TRAINERS WORKSHOP

OLUFUNSO OWASANOYE(MRS)HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

20TH JUNE 2013

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The Child’s Right Law (CRL) of Lagos State 2007 seeks to protect and preserve the rights of children

In spite of CRL students still experience different forms of physical, sexual and emotional abuse

Some of the rights of a child is to be free from torture, bad treatment, have right to protection, security and liberty.

Every students needs guidance, support and opportunities as they face diverse challenges both personally and developmentally that has effect on their academics.

School counselors must be people who students can turn to when they need help

Overcoming the effect of abuse often requires identification, intervention and prevention.

Emotional/Trauma/psychosocial counseling will be one of the main functions of district and school guidance counselor in it's service to students.

The focus of this presentation is psycho-social counseling, interviewing and reporting skills for students victims of abuse

Emotional trauma could result from rape, pregnancy resulting from rape, abortion, teenage motherhood, sexual abuse, child marriage, conflict with the law, verbal abuses, physical abuse such as corporal punishment etc.

Any child that has experienced any form of the above abuse may have their thinking process impaired and their emotional tank filled with guilt or hatred or both

Therapeutic exercise such as counseling may be required to rebuild the child’s confidence and esteem and repair the emotional damage.In order to achieve this the Counselor requires certain special skills

There are various definitions with same meaning such as counseling is giving advice, helping to clarify issues, transforming lives, bringing about change.Counseling is essentially a lively human experience between two people which requires commitment of time and effort from both parties. The aim is for counselor to help client find solution to their problem and bring about positive change.

Analyzing Self◦Know yourself before trying to help others know themselves.

◦Good problem solvers may be poor counselors.

◦Do not stray beyond your level of expertise.

Provide students with career, personal, social and educational counseling

School counselors help students evaluate their abilities, interests, talents and personalities to develop career goals.

Work with students who have academic and social development problems or other special needs.

A counselor is someone who hasSincerity of Purpose /genuineness, that is there must be congruence between your verbal and nonverbal behavior and no pretense. 1.Warmth2.Stress Tolerance3.Integrity4.Sensitivity(understand why people react)5.Open mindedness.(receptive to new ideas)

The three R’s are important: Respect, Reliable and responsible.

Patience Calm disposition Encourager Cooperative

A counsellor must have a passion(strong desire) for helping people .

For you to counsel you must check yourself in terms of attitude and character.

Your character is what you do, think and say when no one is with you or seeing you.

You must be discipline.

Pattern of Counselling: Venue of Counselling must be conducive

Introduction Information gathering Discussion Conclusion/summary focus on main points in order to highlight them

Referral .

1. Accept the victim2. Empathy understand and share the feeling

of victim3. Be Effective in communication: Eye to

eye contact, self control, and full concentration.

4. Be an active listener and be less interruptive of the victim's talk

5. Give full attention: the experience of having someone pay close attention can be very calming for someone struggling with some strong feeling

7.Avoid argument that puts the victim on defensive.8.Maintain confidentiality.9.Non judgmental.10. Silence, no interruption11. Time management is important, but do not rush.

Encourage Counselee to accept the situation and you to also show acceptance

Encourage appropriate emotional release e.g. Crying or intermittent sobs

Identify precipitative events in order to avoid reoccurrence

Help victim to adjust to school life or vocational study life again

Do referral for further appropriate support for example Legal, medical, financial or emotional support. Do not prescribe drugs.

For you to counsel and interview child abuse victims, you must have special skills and knowledge of child developmental process, this helps to build a foundation for effective interview of the child.

Infancy Pre school Teen/AdolescenceOnce you have understanding of these stages, you

will have the knowledge of how the child can communicate his or her thoughts and feelings. There is need to always follow up and have other sessions with the victim to bring about total change.

Encourage and reassure the child. Use Open – ended or leading questions to get the

full story for example, What happened next?, Tell me what you mean. These are brief questions that can stir up discussions.

Paraphrasing Listen for spoken and unspoken words/gestures Self control, do not show shock or unbelief. Good tone in a conducive environment

Note taking : write down information, it could be done during or after your session with the victim.

Summary : focus on the main points to highlight them.

Do not ask questions like: Why? It sounds judgmental.

Filtering - victims do not always tell the whole story, mentally try to sort it out through their words.

Referrals : NGO’s such as Human Development Initiatives, Office of Public Defender,, Ministry of Women Affairs, Welfare, Child Help line agencies, Police, hospitals and other appropriate authorities,

Often times the client comes in feeling depressed and dejected. Ensure that he/she walks out of the door with some excitement and hope.

Neutral questions : Ask questions not relating to the event such as: Did anyone ask you to see me today?

What is your favorite food? How many are your siblings? Where does uncle or auntie live? What kind of things does he/she do with the

family? Are there things he/she does especially for

you? What are your favorite colors?

NAME : SCHOOL: DATE: CLASS

AGE: INFORMATION:

ACTION: REFERRAL: FOLLOW-UP

COMMENTS: END OF CASE:

NAME OF COUNSELOR AND DATE.

Recordings can be saved on a computer Written clearly in a hard cover

book/protective plastic file On mobile phone Electronic tapes and transcribe

You cannot get the ear of a child, unless you touch the heart.

You need to show empathy with compassion to help a child

Identification, Prevention and Protection from ABUSE must be our watch word. It

is the collective responsibility of all of us.

We must always remember that each individual is unique, circumstances though similar are not usually 100 percent identical and even after acquiring excellent skills we cannot solve every problem or have answers to every question. We should know our limitations and never make promises we cannot keep.

Three children(aged 4-10years) were trafficked from a neighbouring town to Lagos.

Children abused physically on the way to Lagos, without food.

The children were rescued and brought to your agency, weak, afraid and distrustful of every adult.

What immediate issues should you be concerned with.

One participant to act as the interviewer and another as one of the children.

Build an interview scenario which would enable you help these children. Put into practice, skills for effective interviewing.

BALLOON GAME

Tie baloon round your waist(6 people) 6 six people to burst the ballon What is your reaction when balloon was

burst Those that burst the balloon are attackers Those that tie balloon are child protectors

Write down your action points what you will do after this seminar that is what I can do be an agent of change.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Olufunso Owasanoye

JUNE 2013.

We put a box called HAPPY and SAD in each of the school we give moral and live issues talk, the student writes on a paper and drop in each side whatever makes them happy or sad.

At the end of the week the write ups are analysed and acted on accordingly