The Role of a Registered Counsellor
The HPCSA states it the following way:
"The role of the Registered Counsellor is to make psychological services accessible to the diverse South African population and to provide psychological and preventative interventions that focus on support and promote the enhancement of wellbeing in community contexts. This includes individuals, families, groups, communities and excludes psychotherapeutic intervention."Registered Counsellors differ from psychologist in the sense that that their primary focus is to prevent psychological problems in individuals and communities to occur, promote psychological well-being, intervene when individuals are experiencing high stressors, and appropriately refer if the individual has a psychological issue which is out of their scope of practice.
Counsellors can assist individuals to find immediate solutions to personal difficulties or strategies to how to deal with the difficulty. They can assist with skills training. Teaching the person to see the "Why is this happening? How do we live with this? and How do we change this?" It is not working on deep rooted issues but rather how to be aware of the consequences it has on your everyday life and how to respond to it in more effective ways.
The Scope of Practice for Reg. Counsellors, according to the HPCSA is:
* Their primary role at a preventative and promotional level involves screening and engaging earlyand appropriate levels of intervention
* Screening and identification of mental health challenges.
* Containment of presenting difficulties
* Provide preventative, developmental counselling services and interventions
* Psycho-education and training
* Promotion of primary psychosocial well being
* Referral to appropriate professionals or other appropriate resources (know when to refer to a psychiatrist or psychologist
* Working in a context appropriate, multi professional team
* Assessments (intellectual assessment, BASIC functioning, kinetic figure drawing).
For more
information regarding the Counsellors and the HPCSA view the following file:
http://www.hpcsa.co.za/Uploads/editor/UserFiles/downloads/psych/psycho_policy/form_258_registered_counsellor_%2004oct_2013.pdf
What do you have to do, to become a Registered Counsellor?
"Becoming a
Registered Counsellor. The minimum requirements for registration
with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as a Registered
Counsellor are as follows: a 4-year Bachelor of Psychology professional
degree approved by the HPCSA, including a 720 hour practicum." -
http://www.sacap.edu.za/counselling/becoming-registered-counsellor/
Professional training includes but is not limited to the following:
* Professional
ethics and conduct * Interviewing techniques
* Client observation skills
* Basic counselling skills
* Development of preventative and developmental programmes
* Report writing
* Conceptualization skills, bio-psychosocial and systems theory as appropriate for community interventions
* Structured trauma counselling
* Community understanding and intervention
* Psychometric competencies (within their scope of practice)
* Cultural beliefs and diversity
* Language sensitivity
* Entrepreneurial skills
* Psycho-educational skills and
* A thorough grounding in the Ethical Code, the Bill of Rights and other relevant legislation.
For more
articles regarding counsellors, follow the following link:
http://therapistsonline.co.za/article/registered-counsellor/
and to understand the role of a counsellor read:
http://therapistsonline.co.za/article/understanding-the-role-of-registered-counsellor-in-the-profession-of-psychology-in-south-africa/
If you feel that you can benefit by seeing a counsellor, please go look at my website: www.thementallyfit.co.za. You can also follow me on Facebook @thementallyfit.
I hope that you found this article interesting and informative.
Written by:
Somari CoetzeeRegistered Counsellor
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