NDIS Counselling Gold Coast
Positive Moods offers different types of counselling for NDIS participants on the Gold Coast region that could help them gain independence and build their skills. Individual counselling facilitates self-knowledge, emotional acceptance, and growth by establishing personal goals and gaining insights into their lives. Individual counselling aims to develop a NDIS participant’s resources optimally on a one-to-one basis. Group counselling in Positive Moods involves a group of three participants in which they establish goals as a group. Group counselling establishes teamwork, camaraderie, and healthy relationships amongst participants.
Participants are encouraged to undergo counselling, funded in NDIS plans, to help them reach their goals - may it be for employment, learning, social participation, communication, or mobility.
What is NDIS?
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) supports people with intellectual, physical, sensory, cognitive, and psychosocial disability in Australia to live a meaningful and comfortable life. NDIS is not a welfare system but rather provides the support that the disabled people need to improve their skills and independence over the course. NDIS gives a peace of mind to families and carers on the Gold Coast for support of their loved ones with permanent and significant disability.
Permanent disability affects the ability of the person to accomplish daily activities and NDIS provides support as early as possible to reduce the impact of disability. In addition, the early intervention also builds their skills and independence as early as possible.
NDIS partners provide support to help people with disability determine the most efficient way to achieve their goals. Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) approach supports children from ages 0-6 years old. ECEI help children develop the skills they need to accomplish daily activities and achieve their goals in life as early as possible. People who are eligible of ECEI are children under 6 years old who have developmental delay, or a parent or their child have a permanent or significant disability, or early supports could reduce the level of assistance that may be needed to do activities in the future. On the other hand, Local Area Coordination (LAC) supports people over seven years old.
What is Counselling?
Counselling is designed to help address specific problems. It solves problems such as addiction or anger issues and discusses coping strategies with the client. Counselling and psychotherapy are often used interchangeably. Psychotherapy is long-term and addresses a broader range of issues while counselling addresses specific issues and short-term. Counselling can be a type of psychotherapy. There are several characteristics of effective counselling:
It is a joint journey of the counsellor and client
Positive Moods counsellors facilitate self-knowledge and assist the client in planning and achieving their goals. Intervention is needed but boundaries are set. Knowing the client is not only the counsellor’s job but also the client’s.
The counsellor encourages a shift in the client’s feelings and emotions
Our counsellors will not force clients to change their feelings and emotions at the end of the session immediately. An effective counsellor does not have to force a shift in emotions and feelings to the client; it shifts naturally and gradually.
The counsellor fully understands his task
Our psychologists are qualified Gold Coast counsellors with degrees and certifications. They are knowledgeable and well-equipped in counselling children and adults. They fully understand the client’s needs and incorporate a non-judgemental, person-centred approach in providing support.
An intense conversation between the counsellor and the client takes place during the session
Intensity does not necessarily mean that the session should invoke heavy emotions and feelings to the client all the time. Instead, it encourages the client to talk about how they feel and previous issues in order to know more about themselves.
An interview is the basic component of a counselling process
Interviewing the client helps in knowing the client before their recovery. Thus, an interview is a basic component in the counselling process to help the client build their skills and independence that brings out the best in them without sacrificing convenience and safety.
Counselling deals with the problems of abnormal behaviour and emotional problems
Positive Moods offers behavioural support to clients who show problematic behaviour. These counselling sessions provide mental health benefits and hone the clients’ social skills to gain better positive interaction with others.
Counselling boosts a client’s confidence and reduces the feeling of inferiority and compulsion
Our psychologists use a non-judgemental approach in supporting the NDIS participants. They uphold confidentiality in their sessions and boost the client’s confidence after the session.
Counselling empowers the client to gain social responsibility
At Positive Moods, we support NDIS participants to build their skills that are helpful in their self-development and also for the progress of their community. A healthy community is inclusive to everyone regardless of age, gender, abilities, social status, and race. Psychologists empower people with disability to gain independence and social responsibility as efficient members of the community. NDIS provides supports to disabled persons to complete daily activities that mold them into a best version of themselves and into independent members of the community.
Traits of An Effective Counsellor
An effective counsellor shows the traits mentioned below. Counselling is not just talking and solving problems; it involves connecting with the client, too. Here are the traits that an effective counsellor possesses:
Communication Skills
A counsellor with excellent communication skills is an active listener. Psychologists in Positive Moods incorporate a person-centred approach in counselling. An effective counsellor cannot effectively advise the client without actively listening with a full understanding of the client’s feelings and emotions, thus effective counselling is a two-way street. The counsellor listens and advises while the client opens up their problems or issues to the counsellor and listens to the advice.
Acceptance
An effective counsellor does not judge the client’s behavioural issues or problems. Instead, they understand where the client is coming from and accepts the client wholeheartedly.
Empathy
Our psychologists understand the client’s problems by putting themselves on their shoes. A non-judgemental approach requires empathy during the session and a counsellor cannot give a piece of sound advice without empathising with the client.
Problem Solving Skills
Clients ask for professional help to solve their problems and understand the cause and how their problems affect them. A counsellor who does not understand their task cannot solve the problem of the client soundly, so it is important for clients to choose their counsellors well. However, as much as the counsellor wants, they must be aware that not every problem of the client can be solved solely by the counsellor.
Rapport-building skills
An effective counsellor builds rapport with the client. Professionalism must be observed during the session but without connection with the client is needed to assure the client that he or she is understood. An effective counsellor builds rapport through active listening and giving the client his or her undivided attention.
Flexibility
At Positive Moods, our psychologists are flexible in handling different types of clients. They have an extensive background in handling both children and adult and those with problematic behaviour. An effective counsellor does not rely on a pre-planned session, but rather easily adapts to the client’s needs for the session. It is advisable to plan the activities for the session ahead of time but it should be flexible enough to adopt changes.
Self-awareness
An effective counsellor does not allow their personal issues to affect the client and this is when professionalism comes in. The counselling is for the client to help them solve his problems and issues, not the counsellor.
Multicultural competency
An effective counsellor respects and understands the culture of the client. Clients’ diverse cultural backgrounds affect their behaviour and it is the counsellor’s duty to be accepting and to be respectful so they could tailor the client’s needs to the client’s convenience.
The characteristics of effective counselling are observed in Positive Moods. Our psychologists in Gold Coast uphold the characteristics of an effective counsellor and we assure clients in the Gold Coast region and in Queensland that we offer personalised and professional healthcare services for persons with disabilities.