Human Givens Online Courses

Counselling is on offer everywhere, yet its effectiveness varies enormously. Some counsellors are brilliant, others useless – some even harm clients (albeit unwittingly).

Despite the wealth of research findings available to us today, the field of counselling and talking therapies still lacks a shared, cohesive evidence-based approach as to the best ways to help people – as a result, and despite the hardworking army of counsellors and psychotherapists (operating from a wide range of models), the rates of depression, anxiety disorders, addictive behaviour etc continue to climb.

This course cuts through the ideology and concentrates on what we know from research findings works – and why – important information if you want to ensure you're helping your patients as quickly and effectively as possible.

Tutor Joe Griffin is an acknowledged expert on psychological interventions for depression, anxiety, anger disorders, trauma and addiction. He has transformed the outcomes of thousands of counsellors by showing them how to work with the givens of human nature – the result is a truly holistic, evidence-based and powerfully effective approach that empowers clients and helps them build resilience against future setbacks.

If you work with, or support, distressed adults or children, you will gain essential new information that will make your work easier and more effective.

The course also provides an excellent foundation for anyone interested in becoming a counsellor or psychotherapist – it will help you see the wood for the trees – and could even save you years of wasted effort!

Discover for yourself what can be done to make counselling much more reliably effective – and why this powerful approach is inspiring so many in the caring and teaching professions. Take the course now.

What you will learn

• New insights from skills-based research and neuroscience which are proving hugely beneficial and improving outcomes
• Information (that no one else has given you) to make you more effective in your work – straight away
• Knowledge of the major myths that still continue in the field and make much counselling ineffective – taking this course could save you years of wasted effort!
• The core counselling skills of brief therapy that really make a difference fast – even with 'stuck' clients
• A scientifically sound knowledge of why these techniques are so valuable
• Moving and instructive case histories, including films of different brief therapy sessions for depression and anxiety which show effective counselling in action
• Demonstration of an essential skill for treating a wide range of problems
• A greater understanding of the mind/body connection and unconscious processes
• How to avoid harming people in counselling and psychotherapy (as can sometimes happen unwittingly, however well meaning the therapist)
• A new understanding of the revolutionary human givens approach to counselling and psychotherapy and how it can make you more effective if you work in these fields
• The importance of working in this truly holistic, integrated and evidence-based way
• Knowledge of what we all need to maintain our emotional health and new insights into what goes wrong for people
• A flexible framework for defining and generating mental health and wellbeing
• The link between effective psychotherapy/counselling and learning
• A solid grounding in what it takes to be an effective counsellor or psychotherapist and the skills required
• Course notes
• CPD certificate, that also counts towards the Human Givens Diploma
• and much more...

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Course content

Part 1 – What is counselling? When does it work? When does it not?

• The vital differences between counselling and pseudo-counselling
• How to recognise when counselling (or psychotherapy) is being genuinely helpful to a client
• Why certain types of counselling tend to make some patients worse
• How to avoid unwittingly harming a client yourself
• The five myths about traditional counselling that disillusion the public about the profession and hold back progress
• Case histories and scientific research that support the above
• How to make counselling services more effective
• The need for a truly integrative, holistic and evidence-based approach that takes into account what it means to be human – our biology, sociology and psychology
• The effective counselling checklist – the essential components of good therapy
• Recognising and using nominalisations

Part 2 – Working in tune with how the brain works

• Pattern-matching – a look at how our brains work and the impact this has on our emotional life
• Important new insights into key brain functions which are dramatically improving therapeutic outcomes
• Learning and therapy – the important link
• Working in tune with nature – we explore the human givens approach to effective counselling which makes interventions easier and more reliably effective
• Identifying the key emotional human needs that are crucial for mental health – along with the resources (or 'tools') nature gave us in order to satisfy them
• How to define solution-focused goals to meet missing emotional needs
• FILM of brief therapy session for depression
• Why counselling needs to be brief in most cases
• What makes a good therapist? The essential capacities you need in order to help someone in distress

Part 3 – Mind/body connections: internal processes

• How the brain and body work together – and the implications this has for effective therapy
• Understanding unconscious processes
• The common reasons people seek help: anxiety, depression, anger, abuse, grief, with case histories to illustrate key points and the skills necessary for treating them effectively
• Depression – an overview of what causes depression, the internal processes involved and how best to treat it
• Understanding panic attacks – the symptoms and causes, and a brief overview of how to treat them
• Phobias and trauma – a brief look at what happens in the brain and how this knowledge has been used to develop a remarkably quick, reliable and effective treatment, which is non-intrusive and unthreatening for clients
• FILM of counselling a patient suffering from an anxiety disorder

Part 4 – The seven core skills of brief counselling

• How to structure an effective counselling session – the structure and skills involved
• Why it's important to make a difference straight away
• The brief counselling skills that all the caring professions need to know about to successfully help people move on in their lives and build resilience
• Why nurses, doctors, social workers, occupational therapists, general practitioners, counsellors, psychotherapists, support workers and other members of the caring professions can learn them easily
• An introduction to the APET model – a clear, accurate representation of the brain's emotional and cognitive reactions to events
• Why this model is highly helpful for defining effective therapeutic interventions
• Seven core skills of effective counselling and why these can be mastered quickly if you have the aptitude
• And more...

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Is this course for me?

• Anyone whose work involves advising, treating or counselling disturbed or distressed people
• All health and welfare professionals, including: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, occupational therapists, doctors, nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists, pastoral workers, social workers, support workers, youth workers, trainee counsellors, university welfare officers and school counsellors
• Planners with responsibility for managing care resources
• Anyone considering a career in counselling or psychotherapy – or who would like to know more about the most effective strategies for alleviating emotional distress (for personal or professional reasons)
• Advisors and managers responsible for staff welfare

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Course format

'How to make counselling more effective' is based on our one-day seminar of the same name. This online course is split into 4 modules, each of which are broken down further into different sections containing filmed lectures given in English by the tutor, Joe Griffin.

Each film clip is followed by a short series of multiple choice questions. These are designed to help you think about and absorb the course content and to check that you have understood the main points of that section before proceeding to the next.

There are also course notes for you to download, plus additional reading information and helpful links.

You can take as long as you like to work your way through the course and can view it as many times as you like.

Once you have completed the course, you will receive a CPD certificate, which counts towards the Human Givens Diploma.

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Diploma-linked Certificate

When you successfully complete the course, you will be awarded a CPD Certificate by HG College and The Human Givens Institute (equivalent to 6 hours of continuing professional development).

'How to make counselling more effective' is also a required module of Part 1 of the Human Givens Diploma, so by successfully completing this online course you will also have completed a part of this highly respected qualification.

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