Basic Counselling Skills

Basic counselling skills are crucial for fostering healthy relationships when working with people, whether patients in a clinic or hospital setting, members of the community, or research participants.

This course stimulates growth in knowledge, self-awareness, and skills development. It aims to enhance participants’ ability to accurately empathise with their clients, develop and apply listening and communication skills, attend skills, active listening, body language, and verbal skills, such as paraphrasing, reflection, using questions appropriately, and summarising.

The course is aimed at lay counsellors, adherence counsellors, community health workers, research workers, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and medical officers. 

Entry requirements: There are no entry requirements. However, preference will be given to candidates working in a health- or social sciences-related field. 

Course Content:

• What is Counselling?
• The counselling process
• Basic Counselling Skills
• Role-play

A Certificate of Attendance will be issued to participants of the course.

Dates: 3 October 2024 (Thursday) (in person)
Venue: Resource Room 1, G Floor, Neuroscience Institute Building
​Time: 09h00 to 16h00 

Course fee is R 1,500 per person

Register Online

For more information or to register, email ce.administration@uct.ac.za 

Only participants registered for the workshop will be eligible to attend. Limited space available

Basic HIV Counselling 

South Africa carries the largest HIV burden in the world – approximately one in 10 South Africans live with HIV. As clinical and non-clinical staff working in the field of HIV, mastering effective HIV counselling skills is key to the prevention and treatment of HIV and the support of potentially vulnerable individuals in South Africa.

Research has shown that individuals who receive adequate HIV counselling can cope better with their diagnosis and related emotions, are more likely to engage in responsible behaviour to decrease transmission, and are more likely to look after their health. However, HIV presents health workers and counsellors with a unique set of challenges. While many health workers have worked with life-threatening illnesses before the HIV epidemic, few have had to meet the challenge of working in an area of such sociocultural sensitivity.

The course manual was developed to support a range of providers (trained counsellors, lay counsellors, researchers, peer educators, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, community health workers, and others) who work with people living with HIV. The purpose of this manual is to provide training in basic HIV counselling. This includes strengthening basic counselling skills, developing HIV-related knowledge, and learning strategies to manage difficult counselling situations.

This course is offered online and contains +/—6 hours of content. Participants will receive the content prior to the course for their own perusal. The content is then consolidated during a synchronous online session, where participants are encouraged to ask questions and participate in supervised role-plays.

This course is ideal for you if you are a social worker, psychologist, nurse, research worker, community health worker, lay counsellor, or any cadre of staff working in the HIV field.

Entry requirements: There are no entry requirements. However, preference will be given to candidates working in a health- or social sciences-related field.  

Course Content:

• Overview of HIV / AIDS Disease Process
• Overview of Counselling process and effective communication skills
• Legal and ethical issues including testing in children
• The contents of HIV pre- and HIV post-test counselling sessions
• Looking after yourself as the counsellor

A Certificate of Attendance will be issued to participants of the course.

Date: 10 October 2024 (Thursday)
Venue: Microsoft Teams
​Time: 09h00 to 15h00

Course fee is R 1,500 per person

Register Online

For more information or to register, email ce.administration@uct.ac.za 

Only participants registered for the workshop will be eligible to attend. Limited space available

Advanced HIV and Adherence Counselling (Life Steps)

Life Steps is an adherence intervention comprising of 13 education and problem-solving steps. The intervention aims to identify structural and psychological barriers to adherence and problem-solve ways to overcome these barriers. Near-perfect adherence to anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is needed to fight HIV successfully. However, ART adherence remains one of the major challenges compromising care for people living with HIV. 

The course is aimed at lay counsellors, adherence counsellors, community health workers, research workers, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and medical officers.

Entry requirements: There are no entry requirements. However, preference will be given to candidates working in a health- or social sciences-related field. 

Course Content:

• ART Adherence knowledge
• Life Steps intervention exposure 
• Application of Life Steps Intervention
• Mental health assessment and referral

A Certificate of Attendance will be issued to participants of the course.

Dates: 17 October 2024 (Thursday) 
Venue: Resource Room 3 Neuroscience Building
​Time: 09h00 to 15h00

Course fee is R 2,500 per person

Register Online

For more information or to register, email ce.administration@uct.ac.za 

Only participants registered for the workshop will be eligible to attend. Limited space available

Suicide Literacy and Prevention

This course is under development - watch this space!