Accidental Counsellor Course
Empowering Individuals to Provide Support with Confidence and Sensitivity
In many situations, individuals are often thrust into the role of an “Accidental Counsellor” without formal training. Whether you’re a teacher, manager, colleague, or community member, you may find yourself supporting someone through emotional distress. The Accidental Counsellor Course equips you with the essential skills to provide non-judgmental support, listen effectively, and guide individuals to seek appropriate help. This course ensures you develop culturally sensitive approaches, promoting psychological safety and inclusivity in every interaction, recognising the diverse lived experiences of those you support.
Why the Accidental Counsellor Course?
Mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety, and depression are prevalent across all sectors of society, often amplified by stigma and lack of understanding. This course bridges the gap by empowering participants to:
- Build confidence in providing support to others in a culturally sensitive and inclusive way.
- Recognise the signs of distress and approach conversations with empathy and respect for diverse perspectives.
- Foster environments where everyone feels valued, heard, and supported, irrespective of their background or identity.
As workplaces, schools, and communities become more diverse, it’s essential that those providing support understand the importance of inclusivity, equity, and sensitivity to different cultural contexts. By promoting these values, the course helps create environments where people feel psychologically safe to seek help and engage in meaningful conversations.
What Will You Learn?
The Accidental Counsellor Course provides practical tools and strategies to help you navigate difficult conversations with care and confidence. It is delivered in an engaging and interactive format, offering opportunities to apply these skills in real-world scenarios.
- Foundations of Mental Health Literacy
- Understand key mental health concepts and the impact of stigma, recognising that mental health challenges can manifest differently across cultures and communities.
- Learn about cultural and social factors that influence mental health experiences, and understand the importance of respecting diversity in all interactions.
- Active Listening Skills
- Enhance your ability to listen with empathy and without judgment, creating space for individuals to share their stories while being sensitive to cultural contexts.
- Build trust by recognising and valuing individual perspectives and emotions, promoting a deeper connection that respects all lived experiences.
- Providing Non-Judgmental Support
- Respond to others with care, compassion, and respect for their unique cultural backgrounds and experiences.
- Learn how to approach sensitive topics while maintaining boundaries and fostering inclusivity, ensuring that everyone feels heard and valued, regardless of their background.
- Guiding to Professional Help
- Recognise when someone may need additional support and learn how to connect them with appropriate resources.
- Understand the importance of equitable access to mental health services, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their socio-economic status or cultural background, can access the help they need.
- Self-Care and Resilience for Supporters
- Learn strategies to manage your own emotional wellbeing while supporting others.
- Create a personal self-care plan that aligns with your values and responsibilities, allowing you to sustainably support others while respecting your own boundaries.
Who Should Attend?
This course is suitable for anyone who may find themselves providing emotional support to others, especially in diverse settings, including:
- Educators: Teachers and administrators supporting students and colleagues from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
- Managers and Team Leaders: Workplace leaders who want to promote mental wellbeing and inclusivity in their teams.
- Community Leaders: Individuals supporting vulnerable groups within their communities, ensuring everyone, no matter their background, receives equal attention and care.
- Parents and Caregivers: Those navigating the challenges of supporting loved ones through difficult times, with a focus on understanding the diversity of family dynamics and cultural contexts.
Course Details
- Duration: 8 hours
- Delivery Format: Face-to-face or online interactive sessions.
- Facilitators: Experienced and accredited trainers with expertise in culturally responsive practices.
- Certification: Participants receive a certificate of completion.
Why Choose the Accidental Counsellor Course?
This course is more than just skills training—it’s an opportunity to cultivate empathy, build meaningful connections, and create positive change in your community or organisation. By embracing values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, the Accidental Counsellor Course ensures that every conversation is approached with cultural awareness, respect, and care, leaving no one behind.
Booking and Enquiries
Ready to make a difference? To book the Accidental Counsellor Course or for more information, contact us at training@positivewellbeinghk.com or explore our course calendar.
Empower yourself to support others with confidence, compassion, and inclusivity. Together, we can build a world where everyone feels heard, supported, and valued.
Receptionist and counter employees are often at the frontline and first contact with a client. If that contact presents as aggressive, angry, or upset sometimes it’s not easy to find a response to diffuse or soothe a situation. Our Accidental Counsellor skills-based workshop equips staff how to handle difficult scenarios and provides a helpful, appropriate response. Participants learn how to take a calm and safe approach, while conveying empathy and encouraging cooperation. It will assist your staff to de-escalate an otherwise challenging situation or potential crisis. This workshop is ideal for counter staff, frontline workers, receptionists, telephone operators, support workers and members of the public.
This course will engage you via a variety of methods: visual, audio, theories, interactive, practical information and exercises to consolidate your key learnings.
You will learn how to help someone identify their strengths, that assist them to manage their problems better, and easier. You will learn how to reframe their thinking to give them a different perspective on something that previously painted a negative picture.
What you learn
- Basic counselling skills
- How to become a good listener
- Resolving emotional situations
- Know our own triggers
- How not to take things personally
- Recognising common communication blockers
- How to handle difficult callers or conversations
- An overview on mental illness
- An awareness of self-harm and suicide
- How to take care of yourself in the face of difficult work
- Why professional boundaries are important
- The power of Mindfulness
This workshop is delivered by a qualified counsellor with many years experience working in the mental health field and training staff.
Learning outcomes
- Be familiar with basic communication skills and how to use them.
- Understand the counselling process.
- Develop strategies for dealing with people in crisis.
- Learn the difference between aggressive, passive and assertive behaviours.
- Know how and when to refer somebody who needs professional support.
- Gain an overview of mental health and wellbeing as well as mental illness.
- Recognise the need for self-care and develop ways of looking after yourself and others.
DURATION: 8 hours. Can be delivered online or in person, either as two x 4 hours or one day.
BOOKING & MORE INFO: For more information about the Accidental Counsellor course &/or to book a course for a group or as an individual, please contact training@positivewellbeinghk.com or look at the course calendar.