Counselling refugee young people: an exploration of therapeutic approaches

This paper presents and discusses the key findings from a study that considered significant issues that affect refugees and asylum‐seekers, and explored beneficial counselling approaches relevant to this group. In‐depth narrative interviews were conducted with three counsellors and three specialist children’s support advisors. Data were analysed using the methods of comparative analysis and theme mapping from a grounded theory approach. The key findings reveal that counsellors do not work from a particular approach but adapt a variety of therapeutic methods to the needs of the child. In addition, they focus on the therapeutic relationship; take into account lack of safety and loss of home, traumatic experiences and impacts, and resilience of the child; stress that both short‐term and long‐term therapy is beneficial; and show a concern over lack of specialised training for counsellors and obstacles to accessing counselling. Understanding the needs of young refugees and asylum‐seekers in the United Kingdom and considering counsellors’ experiences and perspectives on approaches has highlighted implications for practice, which include the necessity for more counsellors to be culturally reflexive and open‐minded in working with this group. In addition, this study may influence the way in which higher education professionals can develop research on refugee children and incorporate relevant pastoral care across the curriculum to accommodate refugee children from a wide diversity of backgrounds and experiences.     

关于高校班级心理委员制度建设的思考

心理委员制度是我国高校借鉴西方国家和港台地区朋辈心理咨询模式的经验而创建形成的。建立心理委员制度,充分发挥班干部在高校心理健康教育工作中的桥梁与纽带作用,广泛而深入地开展朋辈心理互助和心理健康教育活动,有利于扩大心理健康教育工作的覆盖面和影响力,增强心理健康教育的实效性。构建学生心理危机预防与干预的长效机制。心理委员工作具有一定的专业性,因此,心理委员须通过专门的选拔和系统的培训并经过考核合格后方可任职,任职后还需接受长期的专业督导,同时校、院（系）两级心理健康教育机构要加强对心理委员工作的指导、管理与考核,方能使心理委员制度得到不断完善和发展。     

Considering the Challenges of Counselling Practice in Schools

School counselling is developing rapidly in many countries around the World. As with any practice in a secondary setting, challenges and special issues are often identified, discussed, and managed. These can be categorized into four distinct domains: 1) Internal challenges, which include issues related to clientele groups, teachers’ attitudes towards counselling, and students’ willingness to seek counseling; 2) External challenges, which refer to social-economic changes beyond the school. These include popular culture, globalization and societal trends of more families and students moving across borders; 3) Systems challenges, which are those within the guidance programmes implemented by ministries, schools or counselling bodies. These issues may reside in the guidelines for practice in schools, referral procedures, and resource planning; 4) Personal challenges, which relate to the needs as well as the skills of the counsellor. Some examples here are training, supervision, and attitudes towards school systems. The four domains and interactions among them are discussed in this paper.     

Another way to think about the work we do: counselling for work and relationship

Counselling for work and relationship is proposed as another way of thinking about vocational psychology and vocational guidance. It can contribute to the search for a new paradigm for these fields. Central to this way of thinking are two shifts. A shift from a discourse about career to a discourse about work, and a shift to expand the focus of attention beyond the occupational domain to include multiple social contexts of work and relationship across both occupational and personal domains of life. The ways in which these shifts are responsive to theoretical and social contexts is considered.     

Violence and schools in the USA: implications for counseling

This article focuses on school violence in the UnitedStates, kindergarten (k) through 12^th grade, andit addresses the following topics: (a) a briefbackground of school violence in the USA, (b) etiologyand consequences of school violence, (c) preventionprograms and efforts, (d) preventive counseling andconsultation, (e) counseling the violence prone andviolence victim, (f) international and cross-culturalimplications, and (g) discussion.     

英德两国的高等教育指导与咨询及其启示

本介绍了英德两国高等教育指导与咨询服务体系的主要特征、机构设置、任务、角色和层次，在此基础上进行了比较和总结，并结合当前中国高等教育的实际谈了启发和建议。     

Working with Muslims in Counselling—Identifying Sensitive Issues and Conflicting Philosophy

Islam is currently at the forefront of world news and the publicity it receives does not always reflect the reality which counsellors meet when working with Muslim clients. This paper proposes that in working with Muslim clients it is important to identify and avoid making false assumptions concerning Muslim beliefs, values and practices and in the process and content of counselling, to be acutely aware of issues and practices, which are sensitive, and to work within the boundaries which religious beliefs set. The final section attempts to identify some key areas of training for counsellors working with Muslim clients.This article is based on a talk given at the IAC (International Association for Counselling) Conference in Geneva in April 2003.     

Conceptions of Counselling Among Chinese Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong

One hundred and four Chinese secondary school teachers in Hong Kong were assessed on their conceptions of counselling using a 30-item self-report checklist. Based on these teachers’ highest ratings on the three positions of each of the ten issues, it could be inferred that these teachers believe most strongly that a healthy personality is an important predictor of good counselling, that counsellors should integrate theories in their work, and that counselling should focus on the present. While there were few teacher subgroup differences, it was noteworthy that teachers involved in guidance work endorsed a humanistic orientation when compared with teachers with no such involvement. Implications of the findings for improved counselling training for teachers are discussed.     

International student use of university health and counselling services

A large sample of international students attending an Australian metropolitan university provided data concerning use of university health and counselling services—their perceived need for help, resultant help-seeking, satisfaction with help given, explanations for not seeking help when in need, and variables that predicted help-seeking. Using as criterion the individual’s perceived need for help, we found students were under-utilizing both health and counselling services. Those who did seek help evaluated their experiences positively. The gap between need and action is a concern. Students explained failure to act in terms of insufficient seriousness of problems, lack of information about services and, to a lesser extent, doubts and discomfort about the services. Contrary to views commonly expressed in the literature, student perceptions and responses showed few differences based on cultural background. Within-person variables played a stronger role than culture in accounting for students’ help-seeking decisions.     

“What do I Share?” Personal and Private Experiences in Educational Psychological Counselling

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to explore and develop knowledge about how educational psychological counsellors’ personal and private experiences appear in their counselling practice. We conducted four focus group interviews with twelve counsellors from Educational Psychological Counselling Service. Through Thematic Analysis four themes emerged. The first is that counsellors’ personal and private experiences functioned as a backdrop for their counselling practice. The second theme is the counsellors’ use of different types of stories. The third theme deals with how the counsellors were holding back relevant stories. Finally, the fourth theme comprises the purposes of counsellors’ self-disclosure. The conclusion is that personal experiences form a backdrop for counselling practice and are relevant for how a counsellor makes sense of and understands a situation or a problem. Self-disclosure is in some situations used explicitly in the counselling setting. On the other side the counsellors sometimes consciously hold their experiences back.