Introduction Following up on my previous post Starting a Crisis Line or Hotline, I had some reader commentary asking about some more specific nuts and bolts for someone who is passionate and interested in starting a crisis line, hotline or helpline but doesn’t really know where to begin. Obviously, while it is best to bring in…
Category: Counselling and Service Delivery
Counselling and Therapy Credentials
Introduction I’m about a year (8 courses in fact) away from wrapping up my Bachelor of Professional Arts in Human Services from Athabasca University. This has led me to explore potential graduate schools on my path to becoming a therapist in the future. One thing I’ve discovered is that there’s a lot of confusion around…
Active Listening Process on Crisis Lines
Introduction The Active Listening Process (ALP) is a set of skills, or what is called by Ivey, Ivey & Zalaquett in their 2014 book Intentional Interviewing and Counselling as “microskills“ are the fundamental skills used to perform the basic skills of displaying empathy and understanding what your caller or client is saying. The ALP is one…
Coping Skills Therapy for Managing Chronic and Terminal Illness
Introduction I recently had an opportunity to read this excellent book written by Social Worker Kenneth Sharoff. It presents a model of therapy he calls “Cognitive Coping Theory” (CCT) and applies this model to working with individuals who have chronic (or life limiting) and terminal illnesses. Below I present some of the content from the…
Violence in the Social Services
Introduction Nearly one-third of the 100 “fatalities in healthcare and social service settings that occurred in 2013 were due to assaults and violent acts” (OSHA, 2016) No matter what area you work in (community mental health, general or mental hospitals, working in client homes or in a centralized office like a crisis line) you may…