Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!260!204!Ann.Parsons
From: Ann.Parsons@f204.n260.z1.fidonet.org (Ann Parsons)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Quality of counsellors
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Date: 27 Jun 90 20:28:54 GMT
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hI gREG,

>>>>"     What is an OVR counselor? 
>"
 FW>>         Someone who's supposed to help you with your needs but
 FW>> generally screws up.
>"
>"Very true.  The EXPERTISE for preparing very good counsellors has
>"existed for about ten years.
>"
>"But there is a very great information gap between those with the
>"knowhow, and everyone else.
>"
>"Eventually I want to develop communication mechanisms, to speed
>"the transfer of knowhow.   As it now stands, the communication
>"channels are so overfilled with "One-Minute-At-A-Time" trivia, it
>"is hard to get anything longterm into the overfilled
>"communication channels.
>"
>"In my opinion, the Conference Moderator needs to try to get this
>"conference ON-TOPIC.   Being disabled is not enough an excuse for
>"filling this communication channel with trivia.

One quick question, Old Curmudgeon; how can you complain about the relative 
merits of counselors when you didn't even understand my comment about the 
terrible need for good communication in living.

There are many books on communication skills, but the idea doesn't really sink 
in unless the person who's sending the communication really understands that 
the hperson to whom you're sending the information/advice/support may not 
understand what you're saying. If you get this concept through your head, then 
you become a good counselor because you "want" to communicate well. No amount 
of books will do that.

Good counselors, like good teachers, are made in Heaven. I do not mean that 
you must be religious in order to counsel anyone, I merely mean to say that 
the skill of counseling is a gift. It's a combination of desire to communicate 
with a good knowledge of the System and its workings. Maybe that's where many 
counselors fall by the wayside because they didn't take the time to learn 
their area's resources well enough. I don't know, just a theory.

See you on-line.

Ann P.

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