Course description

Have you ever wanted to be a better listener for a friend, a colleague, a relative or the people you help as a volunteer? Counselling skills are the listening and responding skills counsellors use, and many of them work just as well in everyday helping conversations. This course is a friendly, practical introduction to those skills, and to the boundaries and safety that go with them.

It's written for adults in the UK who listen to people in their work, volunteering or family life, and for anyone wondering whether to train as a counsellor. You learn what counselling is and isn't, the person-centred core conditions, active listening, reflecting, paraphrasing and summarising, questions, self-awareness and difference, boundaries and confidentiality, safeguarding and responding to risk, endings, self-care, supervision and ethics in outline, and the UK route to becoming a counsellor. You finish by annotating a made-up helping conversation and comparing your notes with a worked model annotation.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow a few made-up people at a community drop-in in Whitstable, mainly Imola, a school receptionist who volunteers on Thursday evenings. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers, a cheat sheet, worked examples and a skills summary sheet, plus extras such as listening and reflecting worksheets with model answers, open question practice, practice dialogues, a boundaries and confidentiality scenario set, a signposting card template, a concern flow drawing, a self-care plan, a reflective journal template, a course glossary and the final project transcript with an annotation template.

What you'll learn

• What counselling is and isn't: what counselling is, how it differs from using counselling skills, advice giving, befriending and coaching, where the skills help, and the limits of your role.
• Approaches and the core conditions: the person-centred approach, empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence, and psychodynamic, CBT, humanistic and integrative approaches in outline.
• Active listening: what active listening is, attending and body language, silence and minimal encouragers, barriers to listening, and listening by phone, video, text and on the move.
• Reflecting, paraphrasing and summarising: reflecting content and feelings, paraphrasing, summarising and choosing the right skill in the moment.
• Questions, clarifying and staying with someone: open and closed questions, questions to use with care, clarifying, and staying with someone without rushing to fix.
• Self-awareness, empathy and difference: noticing your own reactions and assumptions, the difference between empathy and sympathy, and working with cultural and other differences with respect.
• Boundaries and confidentiality: why boundaries matter, time, role and self-disclosure, dual relationships, confidentiality and its limits, and records and sharing information.
• Safeguarding and responding to risk: safeguarding basics, passing on a concern, what to do when someone mentions risk to themselves or others, and signposting well.
• Endings, self-care, supervision and ethics: ending conversations well, referring on, self-care for helpers, supervision and support, and the BACP Ethical Framework in outline.
• Using your skills, next steps and your final project: using the skills at work, as a volunteer and at home, the UK route to becoming a counsellor, and annotating a made-up helping conversation, with a worked model annotation.

Who it's for

Volunteers, carers, managers, people in customer-facing and support roles, and anyone who wants to listen to others more skilfully. You don't need any experience to start. A notebook is all you need.

What this course is, and isn't

This course is an introduction to counselling skills for learning and everyday use. It is not a CPCAB, BACP or other recognised counselling qualification, it does not train you to practise as a counsellor, and it is not therapy. No qualification is awarded for it. If you'd like to become a counsellor, lesson 10.2 explains the UK route as BACP and CPCAB describe it. Help line and health facts come from NHS, Samaritans, Shout and GOV.UK pages, and training facts from BACP, CPCAB, NCPS, UKCP and the Professional Standards Authority. If you need urgent help, call 999 or go to A&E if a life is at risk; for urgent mental health help, call 111 and select the mental health option in England, call 111 and press 2 in Wales, call NHS 24 on 111 in Scotland, or call Lifeline on 0808 808 8000 in Northern Ireland. Samaritans are free to call on 116 123, day or night. Imola and every other person in the course are fictional, and so is the Lanthorn Community Drop-in.

What will I learn?

• Explain what counselling is, and how using counselling skills differs from counselling, advice giving, befriending and coaching
• Describe the person-centred approach and its core conditions of empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence
• Listen actively, using attending, silence and minimal encouragers, and notice barriers to listening
• Reflect content and feelings, paraphrase and summarise to show you've understood
• Use open and closed questions with care, clarify, and stay with someone without rushing to fix
• Notice your own reactions and assumptions, tell empathy from sympathy, and work with difference respectfully
• Keep clear boundaries, explain confidentiality and its limits, and handle records and information safely
• Recognise safeguarding concerns and respond calmly when someone mentions risk to themselves or others, then pass it on and signpost well
• End conversations well, refer on, look after yourself, use supervision and support, and think through ethical dilemmas
• Understand the UK route to becoming a counsellor, and annotate a helping conversation for skills, slips and alternatives

Frequently asked questions