Counselling can be more beneficial than you first thought. Most people think of a counsellor as a person who guides you through personal or psychological problems. However, Counselling comes from a diverse strong evidence base, with broad applications, empirically supported interventions and interpersonal skills designed to facilitate change and empower clients. Counselling can be used across an array of subject areas. Employment counselling is one area a lot of us ignore when it comes to understanding why we work and what value work brings us. Getting back into work or preparing for work can be daunting and in some cases an idea that you may never thought possible.
An employment counsellor can coach and support you and your family to plan for and manage your career and life/work direction. Traditionally, employment counsellors help their clients deal with vocational decisions concerning choice, changes in, or adjustment to work but the journey you take with your loved ones before employment even begins can be just as crucial to securing a long term meaningful employment role. NOT just another job that leads to nowhere. Counsellors can build on confidence, advocacy and provide you with a sense of certainty before and during employment and into retirement.
How employment counselling can help you:
Working with clients individually and with their families, employment counsellors-
- Help people learn about themselves, their unique characteristics, learning and communication styles and how it fits into employment
- Find a balance between work and life roles
- Navigate through transition from school to employment and from employment to retirement
- Enhance clients personal and career satisfaction
- Use various evidenced based practices to help clients identify their interests, abilities, skills, and goals (small and big) and relate them to real work settings
- Help clients identify educational requirements and develop training plans
- Facilitate career management and career decision-making
- Work with clients who have disabilities, language and cultural differences, or other social barriers that affect their employment prospects
- Help clients deal with barriers to achieving their career plans
- Help clients plan skills training for career development before and during employment, cope successfully with any job dissatisfaction, or make occupational or job changes to produce a better working environment
- Provide a deeper understanding about the client to help them make realistic occupational or employment decisions
- Assist clients with implementing effective employment interview skills and appropriate social skills within the workplace
- Plan and implement career and employment-related programs
- Refer clients to appropriate services to address their needs
- Work co-operatively with community groups and agencies, businesses and other organisations involved in providing career planning resources
- Support clients with challenging behaviours to map out a plan to reduce stress or occurrence of behaviour
- Educate employers and staff around safe spaces, appropriate behaviours, communication, and training methods
“Whether you’re starting out, currently in or finishing up your employment journey you deserve to feel understood, appreciated and feel like you are where you belong.”
The importance of Family in the Employment counselling Journey
More often than not providers assume families are to blame for employment failures due to their lack of trust in the system. When the reality is the system or providers have let them down time and time again without any real explanation other than ‘your family member is un-employable’. Having a good attitude and open communication with families is important for the client and creates a happier experience and an openness to try again. Employment counselling can help to mend the trust and enable the client to thrive knowing their families are happy and are being appropriately supported.
Here are some of the benefits family can get from Employment Counselling:
- Improved communication within the family and with the Customised Employment facilitator. Communication is a key starting point because until the lines of communication are open and operating, it can be difficult to tackle other issues successfully
- Support for coping with challenging behaviours. Family counselling can provide a safe place to learn how to support the family member with challenging behaviours. It can also help to heal the emotional struggles family members go through when these difficult times arise.
- Emotional support for the family dealing with society’s attitudes toward the family member with a disability or other social barriers. Unfortunately lack of understanding causes people to lash out or use unorthodox methods with people who face social barriers such as people with disabilities or from other cultural backgrounds. Creating a safe environment where the family can talk honestly and openly about their experiences is important for building and maintaining trust. Trust is key to a successful outcome as the families need to be able to trust the staff supporting them and trust the process.
- Building stronger bonds. One of the most rewarding benefits of employment counselling is building a stronger family bond. With guidance from your counsellor, families can learn to listen more effectively, emphasis more, and understanding the wants and needs of the others in the family. These skills learnt can resonate into other areas of the families lives and strengthen the overall structure of the family.
- Manage mental health conditions. Families who deal with ongoing or chronic mental health can benefit from counselling. These kinds of conditions can include depressions, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and self-harm. Having someone there to listen and support the family can reduce the emotional struggles and even eliminate some of the challenges faced daily.
The bottom line is that family counselling can help family units learn to understand and overcome whatever dysfunction is currently plaguing them. By providing family members with a safe space to share feelings and teaching them how to communicate and be supportive of each other, family counselling helps build the kind of bonds that keep families together, even during the toughest times.
“Families are not roadblocks; they are the lamp posts that shine a light toward another way.” How can Work First help?
At Work First We know that everyone needs support at some point in their life. Which is why our friendly and professionally trained counsellors will work closely with you to plan and support you towards your individual goals.
If you would like further information or just to have a chat about your options, please get in touch with one of our staff members from the Work First team.
Lauren has a Bachelors in Behavioural Studies, majoring in advanced psychology and minoring in psychology and criminology and is the Mental Health Manager at Work First. With over several years of experience she has a strong passion for working with and helping individuals to achieve their employment goals. Lauren also believes in a whole of life approach and being a mother herself, believes that in order for children and family members to thrive the whole family needs to be apart of the journey, as they are the centre of a strong support system. Lauren hopes that through this approach we can educate employers and reduce misconceptions around people with disabilities, increasing awareness and engagement of people with disabilities in the community and in turn promoting social inclusion.