Child centered counselling - Seminar

[Guest guest]

Seminar on Child-Centered Counselling: Play-Based Therapies

One day seminar on Sunday, June 22nd 2008 from 10 AM to 3 PM, at

18 Radhakrishnan Salai 9th Street (opp. Citi Center shopping mall),

3rd Floor, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004.

Play therapy can be done through storytelling, drama (playing make-believe),

games, puppets, dolls, masks, drawing, painting, sculpture, etc. At present,

very few of our child counsellors are trained in, or are even aware of, these

play-based methods, which can be used to draw a child into discussing what is

going on with him/her.

Instead, in the organisations that work with children and seek to utilise

counsellors to provide children with emotional support and facilitate children’s

self-understanding, talk therapy is the main method used.

Talk therapy helps adults, but does it work for children? A child may find it

difficult to express him/herself in analytical words -- and all the more so when

asked to talk directly about his/her problems with an adult. A

child-counselling session should be all about the child: when a counsellor uses

a medium like analytical talk, which he/she is comfortable with, the counsellor

may not be approaching the situation from the children’s perspective, and may

not be utilising the children’s primary abilities. This might be unfair to the

child, and might also be ineffective: the counsellor could very easily assume

what is happening, instead of actually knowing what is happening.

Chennai Center for Counselling is organising a one day seminar on Sunday, June

22nd 2008 from 10 AM to 3 PM, to address the above-described issues relating to

child welfare.

The seminar is designed to create a space to discuss the issues, problems,

concerns, and frustrations encountered, and how to improve our current response

systems. Participants will have opportunities to network with colleagues, share

their knowledge, and draw up individual and collective action plans to implement

child centered counselling in the institutions in which they work.

The programme will include:

Discussion of Child-Centred Counselling (Play-Based Therapies), and our

experiences in training counsellors in these methods.

Responses by Educators, Counsellors, and Administrators in Schools, Government,

and NGOs (Faith-Based and other).

The seminar will occur at the Center for Counselling’s Office

18 Radhakrishnan Salai 9th Street (opp. Citi Center shopping mall), 3rd Floor,

Mylapore, Chennai 600 004.

We invite counsellors, teachers, NGO staff working with children or schools

administrators who are interested to attend.

Registration fee Rs 200/ participant

For further information please contact

Ms Magdalene Jeyarathnam or Ms Sankari

info@...

98841 00135 / 98847 00174 / 044 - 4208 0810

Magdalene Jeyarathnam

Founder / Director

Center For Counselling

18 Radhakrishnan Salai 9th St.,

3rd Floor, Mylapore

Chennai 600 004

www.centerforcounselling.org

info@...

044- 42080810/ 9884700174