Equipped to Serve: Crisis Counseling Course

This week I attended a three-day intensive crisis counseling course. The course is called “Equipped to Serve” and was created by an America. I was invited by the staff at Neo Birth. Maurie, the founder of Neo Birth, led the course. She told us that by the end of the three days we would be ready to counsel people in crisis. Maybe not. I have received a certificate for completing the course, however, I will take a test and if I pass I will be certified by the South African Course Qualification Accreditation (SACQA) to be a non-professional crisis counselor. Pretty cool right? Here’s the catch… it was a Christian counseling course. There were many positions discussed in the course that went against my own beliefs. We were taught how to counsel someone against the sin of a homosexual lifestyle. Wow. This section of the course was incredibly tough for me to get through, but I managed to sit still in my seat and keep my mouth shut. We learned theories, that as a non-Christian, I do not think I will ever be able to apply to the counseling I might do in the future. We learned that God gives us the authority to counsel. We learned that as counselors we must not be sinners. Instead we must have a strong and loving connection with God because it is impossible to love others, be genuine, or humble without God. We learned that a client will not be able to recover from a crisis if the client does not have a relationship with God. Maurie strongly believes that all counselors on a team must believe in the same God.

Despite having different views on some of the principles and theories of crisis counseling, I was able to appreciate many of the techniques. We learned very useful communication skills, the phases of a crisis, and obstacles of both the client and counselor. The most interesting thing that I learned was the Chinese definition of crisis: “opportunity riding on a dangerous wind”.

In total, there was about ten of us attending the course. The other people were mostly OVC (orphan and vulnerable children) care workers in various Rustenburg communities, and volunteers from Neo Birth. My favorite part of the course was this morning when we each shared about our lives. I was very moved by many of the people’s genuineness to help hurting children. A couple people shared details about their lives that were clearly very hard to share. One woman was nearly in tears when she confessed that she had separated with her husband because he had become abusive. Other women shared that they had children outside of marriage. I finally felt that even though all of these women are Christian, they are human. I have met many of these women before while working in their communities, but I now feel that I have a real connection with many of them. After the woman who had separated with her husband because of abuse sat down next to me, I gave her a smile of appreciation, and she rubbed my leg. At the end of the day, one woman gave me a big hug and told me to come to her community and she will take me on home visits to her OVC homes.

This course really tested my patience at times (we prayed three times each day), however, I have learned incredibly practical counseling skills, and I have had the opportunity to better understand South Africans who want to make a difference and help their people.