Co-counselling

Two people co-counselling

Co-Counselling for you

Co-counselling is a simple and surprisingly effective way of sorting things out in our lives. It is a bit of a multi-tool, it can be used for all sorts of things, for example

• writing a difficult email
• working out what to say to someone
• working out what may be happening in a situation
• discovering why some things are difficult in our lives and what to do about them.

It is very much up to each co-counsellor how they use their sessions. They can work on ordinary day to day matters or go into deep personal issues. It can be used instead of going to see a counsellor and it can be a way of doing very effective psychotherapy.

Co-counselling involves meeting up with another co-counsellor and sharing whatever time they agree exactly equally. One gives really good attention while the other “works” on whatever they choose in whatever way they choose, then they swap over.

CCI (Co-Counselling International) sessions are free. There is usually a cost for the initial training. There are activities that co-counsellors can attend if they want to and these are generally at cost price. Apart from any costs of travel to meet up with other co-counsellors there is nothing else to pay.

One of the main reasons why co-counselling works so well is that co-counsellors learn to give and use really good attention, and the more they do it the better they get at it.

Most people if you talk to them will jump in, give their opinion, advise you, tell their own story or get upset. Even if they seem to be listening their attention is on what they want to say. In co-counselling there is none of that. You can say what you like and the other co-counsellor will just give you friendly, supportive attention.

CCI co-counselling is highly confidential. It is more confidential than talking to a doctor, solicitor or therapist, for example, who all take notes and share your information with colleagues, supervisors and so on. Whatever is said or done by a person working in a co-counselling session is totally confidential, not recorded and never referred to by anyone else again.

Co-counselling can sound very serious and indeed co-counsellors can do very dramatic deep personal work in their sessions if they choose to. And they don’t have to, co-counsellors take things at their own pace and do things when they are ready to. Of course they may need to give good attention to someone else who is doing more dramatic work.

For a lot of us some of our difficulties are about not having enough fun in our lives and co-counselling is often light-hearted. On the whole co-counsellors are a pretty friendly and supportive bunch!

How do I start?

First you need to complete a 40 hour training course. The training is mainly practical, there is no need to do much reading or learning information. It is more about practising doing it and trying a number of simple techniques. It takes 40 hours just because it takes time to get used to doing it. Most people find it a bit difficult at first but it gets easier and easier. Trainers have their own arrangements for paying for this training including pay what you think it is worth and you can afford, sliding scales and fixed fees.

There is a list of training courses on the CCI international web site here: Core training courses

Some of these courses are in person, some are online and some are a mixture of both.

There is more information on the rest of this web site, please explore it. Do feel free to contact any of the people listed on the contacts page if you have any questions or you would like to talk to someone about co-counselling.

A venue used for CCI events - EarthSpirit Centre