FAQ

Counselling helps you look at difficulties and problems that you may be experiencing work, life or cultural transition. Sharing thoughts, feelings and your experiences in a confidential, non-judgemental environment, will help you to work through concerns so that you can understand more clearly what is happening now, and how you would like things to change.

A counselling session provides a time and an opportunity to talk with a trained professional in confidence about any issues that causes you concern. These may include for example: problem with work performance, adjusting to change, career transition, handling stress, dealing with traumatic events, how we feel about ourselves, work-life balance, our relationships with partners, families, friends and co-workers, grief and loss, adjusting to our new life and cultural issues.

Counselling sessions are normally arranged on a weekly basis and each session lasts 60 minutes. You may require more than one session. If additional sessions are recommended, you and your counsellor will discuss and agree on what these sessions will cover.

We use Integrative Counselling therapy (also called Eclectic). This term is used to describe either an integration of two or more therapies or an integration of counselling techniques. Integrative counselling is not tied to any single therapy since no one single approach works for every client in every situation.

Our flagship is Cross-Cultural Transition and Adaptation.

Here are a few reasons how our counselling services can add value in your organisation:

• Improved Productivity - When an employee is dealing with personal issues, the result is often a drop in productivity at work. We provide you with prevention techniques and strategies to assist in helping your employees deal with all of life's ups and downs as you are also ensuring effective company growth and development.
• Reduced Company Costs - When an employee is suffering personally, his or her performance is suffering at work too. When this occurs, your company incurs financial loses. In Session is designed to reduce the impact that social, psychological or physical problems have on the employee in order to reduce the financial impact on the company.
• Increased Morale and Work Place Harmony - Human Resources are the most invaluable of all resources. In Session ensures that your employees are well taken care of as individuals so that they can perform as part of your team. We provide prevention and management services that ensure employees are happy and healthy in the workplace.
• Reduced Absenteeism - We know that frequent absenteeism costs you money and can be devastating to your business. In Session can assist in reducing the amount of time an employee take off from work.
• Reduced Turnover - High turnover of employees are costly for any company. In Session can effectively reduce the turnover of employees by managing work-related and personal stress by improving the working environment in terms of morale and company support ensuring employees are well looked after and less likely to leave their jobs.
• Reduced Accidents at Work - An employee suffering from stress-related symptoms will often experience difficulty with concentration, mental focus and physical function. This can be a dangerous combination in any environment. In Session looks after the mental health and ability of your employees ensuring that they are able to function at the required safe level.
• Resolution of Work-Related Problems - External stress often results in a reduction in workplace performance. Problems within the working environment lead to absenteeism, high turnover and low morale. In Session looks at the physiological health of your employees developing strategies for coping with external stress as well as work-related stress.
• Improved Work Performance - In Session is a professional counselling service.  Work performance is greatly affected by stress and can escalate into personal problems. We assist in managing these problems and ensures employees' issues are quickly resolved. This means fewer mistakes at work, high quality output and an overall improvement in productivity.

Using our counselling service enables you to consult with trained counsellors who understand human behaviour and relationships as well as workplace cultural differences. We are skilled in problem recognition, conflict management, development of human relation skills and issues of workplace stress. The maximum benefit of our service is gained through a proactive approach that addresses issues and concerns before they become a crisis.

In Sessionis about short-term, solution-focused and integrative counselling. The counselling sessions are informal, friendly, non-judgemental and focused on your needs. It can be face-to-face, over the phone or through an online private room, whichever is more convenient for you. Our therapy must fit the client as well as the relationship between the client and the counsellor.

Your counselling sessions can help you to:

• Clarify a problem
• Identify options
• Develop plans to approach difficult issues in a constructive manner
• Assist you with tools to handle situations better
• Ensure that plans include a preventative relapse of problems

Our online counselling sessions are available to you now.  Some people prefer to be discrete or may feel unconformable speaking with a client face-to-face or a client is unable to meet his or her session and would like to pick up where they left off from a previous session.  We needed to make sure we cater to most of our clients' needs and availability.  Each session will cost $80 and last for 1 hour.

A key feature of In Sessionis the high level and regard of confidentiality and respect for your privacy. Our staff is not required to inform anyone of your visits. Should you need to advise your employer or family that you are attending sessions with us, they are required to observe strictest confidentiality and to support you in accessing our services. If your employer has sent you to us, a report will be provided without disclosing any non-business related, private information. You and your counsellor will agree on the content to be provided to your employer.

Confidentiality also means that no one will receive information from your counsellor concerning your situation. Conversations and any informtion you share with your counsellor will be in strictest confidence and will not be communicated further unless written authorisation is given by you.

In extreme cases and in order to protect the client or someone close to him or her, the counsellor has an obligation to breach confidentiality when it is clear-cut and the client may harm him or herself, and the counsellor seems the idea to be serious. In addition, if the client poses a danger to others, the counsellor has a duty of care when statements are more than mere words and foreseeing an actual danger. When this is to believe to be the case, the counsellor's duty to warn the potential victim and or authority supersedes the concern for confidentiality.

Sometimes the symptoms appear a few hours or days after the event. In other instances, the symptoms may not appear for weeks or months. In Session can assist people in their recovery.

The following tips may help to minimise the stress reaction:

• Talk to people to whom you feel close
• Try to express your feelings as they occur
• Keep in touch with friends
• Ask someone to keep you company
• Try to rest more than usual
• Eat regular and nutritious meals even when you have no appetite
• Keep to your normal schedule as much as possible
• Maintain regular physical exercise or even take a walk
• Allow time for the dreams, recurring thoughts and flashbacks of the event to become less frequent and painful
• Seek professional help, particularly if the feelings are prolonged, persistent or too intense

If someone you know has been affected, you can help by:

• Spending time with the person in a non-judgemental way
• Listening attentively to what he or she says
• Offering help and support without waiting to be asked
• Reassuring the person of their safety
• Giving the person space and private time
• Assisting with tasks of daily living such as cooking, shopping, cleaning and family matters

Remember, people recover at their own pace. Be patient and understand.

We offer a variety of resources and training material for employers as well as self-help information. Please click here to visit our affiliated resource centre The Learning Mall.