So… What do you specialise in?
I was trained in Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Bsc in Counselling and Psychology. The course provided a broad approach to different schools of thoughts in counselling and psychotherapy. To corner a specific name would not be accurate as my training does not sit in the UK’s sorting hat. However, I would like to think that I am a person-centred counsellor with an integrative approach because a client might need a combination of approaches to support them throughout life stages and events.
During the university training, my encounter with Positive Psychology; Family Therapy; Addiction Counselling and Alternate approach in counselling had built a bigger and more flexible platform for me to understand my clients. I became more trauma focused after started working in the UK which included online training by Carolyn Spring and Narrative Exposure Therapy.
The University course requires us to participate in pre-internship before our placement so I started volunteering to support Young people online late at night; and children whose parents are suffering or recovering from a mental health condition.The last year of training, I had a placement in a special behavioural school for girls of secondary school age.
August, 2019. My volunteer service started at the Rape and sexual abuse supporting Centre (RASASC) in Guildford, providing maximum two years counselling service to adults. I had learnt how to provide a stabilised environment for the client to cope with the aftermath of the abuse or assault. The coping strategies include rebuilding safe space and grounding;establishing boundaries and rethinking the factors contributing to self-esteem; improving intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships; the listed above is not exhausted.
I was very lucky to secure a job towards the end of the first lockdown in 2020. I started working with children of primary school age (5-11 years old). Being younger does not mean they have less to process, sometimes even more because they might not have as much internal or external resources as well as capacity to regulate themselves. After a year on the role of counselling assessor (someone who collect information before the counselling session starts), I started working under a programme that provide counselling service for children and young people who had been through sexual related trauma.
So, asking me what I am specialised in, is a difficult question for me to answer. I have experience working with different trauma. I have experience working with neurodiverse and neurotypical clients. I have experience working with people facing difficult mental health conditions. I have experience working with a wide range of age groups.
But no, I didn’t want to say I am specialised in anything just because every client is unique with their life stories. Simply because I had worked with a specific theme, does not make me a specialist. I have experience but that does not make me know better; I have knowledge but that does not mean the knowledge applies to everyone. If I have to answer the question, I would say I am specialised in listening to my clients, hearing their needs and trying my best to understand what has happened to them.