Contemporary counselling for a contemporary society
Welcome message and Introduction by Susan Kaye, The Counsellor@ The Challenge of Excellence
In my thirty years as a qualified counsellor, and then coach and mentor I have worked on more issues, problems, challenges and disputes with and for my clients than I would have thought possible. Although I learned much from a professional perspective through training and qualification, it is through my clients that I have truly learned the most. This introduction to a new way of thinking about counselling is a testament to them. It is a testament to their trust in me, to their courage and to their willingness to change, that I am what I am today, a contemporary counsellor for a contemporary society.
We live in a world today that offers us more…. more of everything, much more than 10 or even 20 years ago. More variety, more choices, more opportunities, more experiences, more technological innovation, more connectedness, more medical breakthroughs, more, more, more! And with having more, and more to do and less and less time in which to do it, it’s no surprise that we are confronted with more pressures, more decisions to make, and often more stress. According to Wikipedia, we are “living in a time of absolute novelty with no historical precedent”. This means we must seek and or adapt to change because we are living with change as a constant.
Learning about managing more of everything therefore, is also a necessary constant and it is for this reason, living in a contemporary society, we can benefit from the skills, experience and understanding of ‘contemporary counselling’.
