Training courses resources

• Work-Related Dilemmas
• School and Career/Work Adjustment Concerns
• School‐Work‐Retirement Transitions
• Marital/Relationship Difficulties
• Parental Issues
• Skill Deficits
• Stress Management
• Organisational Issues
• Dealing with Disease/Injury/Disabilities
• Personal/Social Adjustment
• Identity Development

Here is an in-depth explanation of how social and counselling psychology can help you tackle the common problems listed above:

Work-Related Dilemmas - Basic Counseling Techniques
A counsellor helps people resolve manager and employee conflicts, manage their time better, cope with a new manager and disrespectful workplace behavior, give and receive feedback and manage stress. He or she can also help you decide whether you need to change your job, in case the conflict proves too deep to be resolved.

School and Career/Work Adjustment Concerns
Counsellors are trained to provide career information resources and discuss career development. One application of social psychology is at school, where you administer and interpret aptitude and ability assessments. You will also learn to assess job satisfaction and provide clients pointers to improve it.

School‐Work‐Retirement Transitions
The transition to retirement can be one of the most difficult in your life. Counsellors recognise this and support their clients in this by showing them the new opportunities open to them. Sometimes people see retirement as the end of everything, but it doesn’t have to be – you finally have time for hobbies and travelling. Similarly, the transition from school to work is entirely positive – you point out to clients that they will finally have financial freedom and the opportunity to prove themselves. 

Marital/Relationship Difficulties
A course in social and counselling psychology will prepare you to assist couples facing marriage or relationship problems. Couples usually feel distressed and even hopeless about their relationship when they first contact a counsellor, who helps by taking them back to better, happier times in the past. Relationships where people are able to look back and remember happier times can be saved.

Parental Issues
Counselors help people who are angry or heartbroken, desperate to rebuild a damaged parent-child relationship, and also in cases where the relationship was good prior to separation or divorce. Social psychology can help resolve conflict even in cases where it has persisted for decades. Individual, family and group counseling and psychotherapy are possible options.

Skill Deficits
Our students obtain the skills to assisting adults to work on life skills that are necessary to improve functioning in the dynamic world that we all live in. Social psychologists help their clients improve their social skills, confidence and self-esteem, build resilience, become more assertive, manage stress better, and functioning more effectively within intimate relationships, thereby becoming better husbands or wives.

Stress Management
Stress is a physical and emotional response to the demands of life. It is our internal, conditioned reaction to perceived external pressures. As a counsellor, you can often help treat any issues that arise as a result of needing to cope with high levels of stress by pinpointing the cause of the stress and helping your client understand their reaction and modify it accordingly.

Organisational Issues
There are various ways in which social psychologists can help resolve organisational issues. One of the ways is by teaching healthy coping skills that staff can use to manage work-related issues. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help your clients identify and change unhealthy thought patterns, which often results in improved organisation skills. Meditation and mindfulness are additional techniques people can acquire to become better able to manage their time and tasks.

Dealing with Disease, Injury, or Disabilities
Counsellors help people suffering from chronic disease, injury and disabilities by making them see what good is still there in their lives. There are techniques you can teach people to mitigate their response to chronic pain, such as mindfulness and meditation. In cases where the disease is treatable, counsellors provide support and encourage positive thinking about the outcome.

Personal and Social Adjustment
School is one of the first places where personal and social adjustment issues manifest themselves. You will have the necessary knowledge and skills to work with young people by offering education, prevention and short-term intervention, thereby removing barriers to student success and promoting positive mental health.

Identity Development
Have you ever felt like you were going through an identity crisis? Or know someone who was? As a professional pursuing social and counselling psychology, you will meet lots of people who “feel like they’ve lost themselves.” Identity crises are frequently sparked by life changes or transitions.


In counseling, you work together with your client to unfold the story of who they are, find out and explore who they have become and start developing their story. As you tell them things about themselves they couldn’t see, you will make it possible for them to practice new skills and make active choices about the personal and/or career path they want to follow.

A Beginning Counsellor’s Tool Kit: Where and How to Start?