Life Works Counselling and Training Services Inc. Mental Health, Counselling and Training
403-931-1094

Who Are We and What Do We Do?

Life Works Counselling and Training Services Inc. was established in 1994, and is located in Millarville (1/2 hour southwest of Calgary), Alberta. Upon contractual requests from community organizations, we deliver counselling, training and program services in communities across Canada.

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Programs 

Program List and Overviews

The following two programs are delivered in partnership with Ilisaqsivik Society, of Clyde River, NU:

If you wish to have more information on these programs, please Contact Us.

TWO-YEAR INUIT COUNSELLORS’ TRAINING AND MENTORSHIP PROGRAM – WITH A FOCUS ON ADDICTIONS

Overview  

This program will provide certificate training in Self-Actualization Therapy, Traditional Inuit Therapy, Individual and Group Therapy and Client-Centered Therapy to Counsellors. The program provides Counsellors with the knowledge, skills and abilities  to counsel clients suffering from addictions, trauma, loss and grief, abuse and violence and suicide ideation.

The topics and program outline will be reviewed and adjusted according to the guidance of the elders and students.  This program is Student-centered and determined.  The students are already the experts in knowing what will be most helpful for the people and how they can provide the highest service within their communities.

This program will invite all Elders, students, interpreters and translators, and facilitators to share their collective wisdom within the context of Inuit Social Values in developing effective Counsellors.  The summary of this process will be documented and transferred on media that can be shared:  digital print, such as Our Life’s Journey Manual by Terry Garchinski (et al), photographs, posters and videos.

The students will focus on the selected topics and develop usable culturally appropriate skills. 

This is a two-year program, divided into four phases.  Each phase will involve a range of 80 to 120 hours of coursework, which will be followed with 6-10 hours of practical work assignments, teleconference calls and a mentorship program:

Phase 1: Becoming an Effective Counsellor

Phase 2: Addictions Counselling Skills, Impacts of Alcoholism and Other Addictions on All Members of the Family (Family Disease Model) and Assessment and Intervention

Phase 3: Factors That May Create Imbalance That May Lead to Addictions and Factors That Help to Create Balance

Phase 4: Culture and Traditional Values and Beliefs; Traditional Knowledge, Survival Skills, Traditional Medicines and Ceremonial Practices, and a Culture-in-Transition

In-between the major instructional phases, each Student will be involved in a small peer support group.  Students can further increase their effectiveness by sharing and learning from peers, within a structure of giving and receiving feedback, evaluating self and the other, and reporting back to the larger group. Students will meet as a working unit to do projects, review caseloads and offer peer support.  Each Student will be required to do a certain number of hours of practical work assignments.

Throughout this program, mentoring relationships will be established, as a way of bringing people together, from various communities, with different backgrounds, positions, experiences, resource accessibility, and positions of influence.  Students will be required to respect and trust the confidentiality of their interactions with one another.  They will be required to have frequent interactions during and in between each phase of the program,  with the intent of building mentorship networks, and developing professional and community capacity building. Mentorship networks will help to strengthen the students capacity in building skills, knowledge and competencies, and in developing leadership qualities and partnerships. It allows them to engage in a process of sharing with one another, and with other affiliated organizations or groups.

Each Student will be acknowledged with a Certificate of Completion of the Program at the Closing Ceremony.

Each Student will receive a wallet-size Graduate Card stating Completion of the Program.

TRAIN THE FACILITATOR PROGRAM

Train the Facilitator Program Description:

Train the Facilitator Program trains counsellors to facilitate the two-year Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Program

Prerequisites: 

Participants must have:

Participated and/or graduated from the two-year Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Program.

Length of Train the Facilitator Program:

Two-year training:

  1. First Year:  Part 1 and 2  
  2. Second Year: Part 3 and 4 

 Materials:

  1. Our Life’s Journey: The Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Manual by Terry Garchinski, R.S.W.
  2. Facilitating Participant-Centered Healing Workshops by Terry Garchinski, R.S.W.
  3. Handouts

Methods of Teaching:

  1. Critical Analysis
  2. Self Reflection Exercises
  3. Group Discussions
  4. Role Plays
  5. Performance Feedback
  6. Case Studies (using the Our Life’s Journey: The Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Manual )
  7. Creating and Utilizing Open Spaces
  8. Power of Invitation
  9. Analogies/Maps
  10. Demonstrations
  11. Writing
  12. Storytelling
  13. Music
  14. Humor
  15. Brainstorming
  16. Personal Interactions
  17. Prayer and Meditations
  18. Field Trip (On-the-land)
  19. Traditional Medicines
  20. Sharing Circles

 Program Objectives: 

  1. To train counsellors so they can facilitate the two-year Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Program
  2. To facilitate a review of the two-year Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Program with participants, discussing their comfort/discomfort level in implementing/utilizing the counselling methods, techniques, approaches and tools.
  3. To review the Our Life’s Journey: The Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Manual
  4. To deliver the Train the Facilitator Course, based on the Our Life’s Journey: The Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Manual
  5. To practice self-care as facilitators.
  6. To enhance participants’ counsellor skills, as facilitators of  the two-year Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Program
  7. To mentor participants throughout the Train the Facilitator Program.

 The Four Parts Of The Train the Facilitator Program Are As Follows:    

1. Reconnection with participants, assessment and review of  two-year Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Program and its impact on the participants’ counselling practices and personal life.  As well as the review of resource material with a special emphasis on Our Life’s Journey: The Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Manual and its different aspects:

  1. The Story (Narrative Therapy in cultural context)
  2. Counselling Tools and Strategies
  3. Maps and Metaphors
  4. Questions that invite healing

2. Overview of Train the Facilitator Level I:

 Participants will learn about:

  1. Creating a safe and effective context for healing, learning, and growing including the establishment of group guidelines and a sobriety commitment;
  2. Facilitator Principles and Ethics;
  3. The many functions of a facilitator (leader, expert, coordinator, facilitator);
  4. Assessing group “buy-in”;
  5. Focussing on intent, goals, commitment, willingness to contribute to group process;
  6. Determining group assets (language, literacy, skills, gifts, experiences, etc.), values, styles of facilitation, openness, cultural and spiritual frameworks;
  7. Establishing and agreeing upon workshop/program principles, agenda/outline, useful outcomes of training
  8. “Reading” the group, and being flexible with where the group demonstrates its needs throughout the workshop;
  9. Using process methods including, but not limited to, group discussions, analogies, games, demonstrations, role-playing, open-spaces, writing exercises, storytelling,   Medicine Wheel, Inukshuk or other relevant cultural tools, music, maps, the power of invitation, brainstorming, personal interactions, prayer and meditations, sharing circles, traditional medicines and humor;
  10. Creating and utilizing a resource tool box:  Our Life’s Journey: The Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Manual, a book reference sheet, music, dance, games, ice breakers, analogies, internet sites, creative tools, and hands-on participatory activities;
  11. Developing and utilizing management skills for time, facility, processes, content, methods, resources, and energy level;
  12. Determining the end product.  (What are the participants leaving with?  What has changed? What has been awakened?);
  13. Facilitator Communication Methods;
  14. Conflict Resolution within the workshop;
  15. Working in teams (facilitator and co-facilitator);
  16. Future planning (Where do we go from here?);
  17. Developing formats for evaluating the work done;
  18. Completing the documentation, feedback and follow-up work.

 3)      Overview of Train the Facilitator Level II:

 Participants will learn:

 The Practice of Facilitating the two-year Inuit Counsellors’ Training and Mentorship Program, with focus on the following aspects:

  1. The workshop principles;
  2. The use of narrative therapy;
  3. Traditional Inuit Counselling;
  4. Other Therapeutic Counselling Settings;
  5. The Therapeutic Counsellor;
  6. Inviting the Client to Heal Himself or Herself;
  7. The Therapeutic Relationship;
  8. Establishing a Safe Setting;
  9. Telling the Story; 
  10. Assessment;
  11. Intent and Goals;
  12. Boundaries;
  13. Order, Reorder and Sorting out the Disorder;
  14. Responsibility and Ownership;
  15. Emotional Expression and Management;
  16. Thoughts and Beliefs;
  17. Parallel Story;
  18. Person-Behavior Distinction;
  19. Education and Awareness;
  20. Externalizing;
  21. Dyads;
  22. Brainstorming and Prioritizing;
  23. Blocks and Barriers;
  24. Action;
  25. Feedback;
  26. Prayer;
  27. Genograms;
  28. Loss and Grief;
  29. Trauma;
  30. Abuse and Violence;
  31. Residential School Impact;
  32. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder;
  33. Suicide;
  34. Addictions; 
  35. Sobriety Plan;
  36. Helpful Questions, Statements and References from the Tool Box;
  37. Utilizing various healing maps, models and metaphors.

 4)      Field Work – Review of the work as a whole.  Bringing it all together.

  1. Elders overview and feedback;
  2. More on communication;
  3. Advertising (Getting the word out);
  4. Facilitating and being human – continuing to work on my own healing even as I invite others to work on theirs;
  5. Working within my own purpose, meaning and worldview;
  6. Burnout prevention (Setting limits, facilitator self-care);
  7. Working within traditional Inuit Social Values;
  8. Being open to new developments, new teachings and old teachings revisited;
  9. Graduation Ceremony.

NOTE: This program is Elder and participant centered and determined.  The Elders and participants are already the experts in knowing what will be most helpful for the people of their communities/region and how the counsellors can best be informed so as to be of highest service to their clients and communities.   Therefore, this outline is subject to their direction and review at any point through the process.

Mentorship:

 Throughout the Train the Facilitator Program, the facilitator will mentor the participants, by way of scheduled telephone appointments.