By
Afedzi Abdullah, GNA
Cape Coast, June 30, GNA – The Ghana National
Association of Certificated Counsellors (GNACC) in collaboration with TUCEE
Institute of Counselling and Technology has organised a cyber-counselling
training workshop for its members.
The workshop, which was on the theme “Cyber counselling:
The innovative and ubiquitous tool for satisfying clients’ needs” formed part
of preparations for the International Conference for Counsellors and Associates
(ICCA) scheduled to take place later this year.
It sought to build the capacity of counsellors
and their profession to be able to use basic Information Communication (ICT)
tools to reach their clients.
It was also to expose them to the ethics and
legalities involved in using such ICT tools as well as the theories backing the
use of ICT tools in counselling.
Participants were taken through the concepts
of cyber counselling, ethics and legalities of cyber counselling, basic
strategies for implementing tele-counselling, theories and approaches in cyber counselling
and basic requirements for practicing cyber counselling.
Addressing the participants, Mrs Cecilia
Tutu-Danquah, the Interim National President of GNACC said cyber counselling
remained the surest way to reach a large clients and encouraged members to take
full advantage of it.
She mentioned that acceptance of counselling
in Ghana was faced with many challenges due to the unprofessional ways of
presenting the idea by some groups of people who paraded as counsellors.
This, she said had negatively affected the
professionalism of counselling in the country with lots of apathy by a section
of the public towards seeking counselling services.
Mrs Tutu-Danquah stressed that it was
unacceptable for teachers and pastors to parade themselves as counsellors
adding that, they were all trained for specific roles in the society
She said counsellors were agents for the
promotion of mental health and the right units for the settlement of conflicts
and as such should be the first point of correction for all emotional and psychological
issues and not the teacher or the pastor.
“People even think it’s only when you have a
problem that you need to see a counsellor, which is not true. You do not need
to wait till you are sick before you see a counsellor. For all emotional
issues, the counsellor is the first point of correction” she said.
Mrs Tutu-Danquah underscored the importance of
counselling and called on corporate institutions and companies to employ counselling
psychologists and establish counselling units to address the psychological and
emotional needs of their workers.
This, she said would promote a sense of
organisational community and spirit of productivity and ensure that expected
organisational goals were achieved.
According to her, corporate counselling leads
to a happier, more positive and increased productivity and secured employees as
well as employers.
GNA