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I have talked about my tutoring job before. It is something that I enjoy very much. To contribute to teaching other counsellors how to work ethically and effectively online.
Two weeks ago we had a face to face meeting with all the present tutors to celebrate the fact that OLT has been around for 10 years. That alone is amazing, 10 years ago not that many counsellors were working online, many people still had very bad internet connections [dial up for instance] and we worried a lot less about encryption. It took some visionary minds to bring counselling online and from the start care about doing it well. To take into account that it was not the same as having a client in the same room with you and that you had to learn to do this well.
So over the years the courses have evolved. The tutor team are always on the lookout for new inventions online and incorporate that into the teaching. One of the things that have become clear over the years is that online counselling is very well suited for both counsellors and clients with disability. Because you can work at your own pace, those with disabilities can decide not to work when they do not feel well.
We are still growing. Next year will be a very exciting year when we plan to ad many more workshops to our curriculum. And a whole new course is going to start, online superivision. We have just heard that this new course has been accredited by CPCAB. So if you are a counsellor who wants to branch out into this exciting field, please contact me for more details.
I am still working on the new webpage and right now that takes up a lot of my time. Sorry but I am not ready to share it with you just yet, but on the left you will get a sneak peak on how it will turn out. Over the next couple of days [and weeks] I will be adding content to it. It is my intent to have a lot of resources there for highly sensitive people and those learning to adjust with chronic pain. [If there is something you would like me to include please send me a message or a comment here.
good ideas are always welcome.] So my blog posts the coming weeks might be a little short. I promise that I will make up for that when the new site is up and running.
Again a short post as it is a pretty busy week for me. Lots of travel as well first to Belgium and then on to England. I am getting to know the ferry boats pretty well! I am looking forward to meeting all my fellow tutors in the flesh very much. And I think it is great that we weill be spending a part of the day brainstorming about how we can make our courses even better! Watch this space for what we come up with.
Another big change will be my website and this blog! Both will be migrating to wordpress very soon and will be integrated. I will share the new web adress soon and then for a little while will continue to mention the new posts here. I really hope you will all be able to find the new space just as easily and will keep following me there!
Take care,
Mieke
This week I am opting for a very short post again. Why? I migh hear some people think. Fact is, I love writing. But it is one of these times in the year that my body is shouting at me to slow down. Many years even this shouting was not enough. But now I have gotten so much better at listening. And we get along much better. Blogging is fun but it is not one of the things that I 'really' need to do during the week. So I am now on a basic regimen of tasks. My body is happy and I get to catch up on DVD and books, win-win.
Part of next week I will be on a work trip. I will certainly talk about it when I get back! It is great to be a part of such a dedicated group of people as the tutors at Online training for counsellors. We will talk about making our courses even better and adding new courses and workshops for our students.
Value yourself. It is so easy to say, but not so easy to live by especially for women. Many women are often happier when those around them are happy. This is especially true for most highly sensitive women who often have to learn to say no.
Being highly sensitive myself, it is something that I have had to learn myself. In the old days I never used to say no, but over the years I have become good at putting me first and trusting that good friends will understand your no, and they do! I have come to listen to my body better and to know when enough is enough.
And yet I had another eye-opener just a few days ago. As a small business owner I am carefull where I spend my money. This means that I try to do as much as possible myself and not hire people to do it for me. At the moment I am building a new version of my website. With new platforms like wordpress it is getting easier to do so and I like being in control and able to change my own content and add new pages.
Yet it was taking me a long time to get the basics down. I would be adding graphics and text without it looking very professional, and as a perfectionist that did not sit well with me either.
It took a friend to open my eyes about what I was doing. She and I had had a discussion on another topic about the value of my time. When I work with clients I of course charge an amount of money per hour. It had taken me many hours to get things done on wordpress and still it was not to my liking. Hours I could also have spend earning money instead of wasting time. So I was actually wasting valuable time. It was much wiser and [in the end counting that way] cheaper to get some help.
This example also shows that sometimes we need help to see things clearly. That can be a good friend or a coach or counsellor. We all need sparring partners for the occasional reality check to see if we are really doing what we are good at.
As always I would love to hear your stories!
We are still growing. Next year will be a very exciting year when we plan to ad many more workshops to our curriculum. And a whole new course is going to start, online superivision. We have just heard that this new course has been accredited by CPCAB. So if you are a counsellor who wants to branch out into this exciting field, please contact me for more details.
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