Peer Support in Action
SETTING UP RE-EVALUATION COUNSELLING PEER SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN SCHOOLS IN THE MIDLANDS, ENGLAND
NETTA CARTWRIGHT
I was one of the first teachers in the UK to innovate peer-counselling in 1985 and since then have set up peer support services in 24 primary, special and high schools and 1 pupil referral unit in Stoke-on Trent, Stafford, Stone, Lichfield, Penkridge, Rugeley, Tamworth, Walsall and Wolverhampton. Most of these services have been sustained by trained teachers in the schools.
I am a school counsellor in three high schools in the Midlands and a freelance consultant active in inset and peer-support training. I have written about peer counselling and equal opportunities education and teach the Re-evaluation Counselling (http://www.rc.org/) model of co-counselling. "Towards Bully Free Schools: Interventions in Action" co-written with Derek Glover is based on our research in Midlands schools for the Keele Anti- Bullying Project and includes case studies of schools with peer-support systems.
My Re-evaluation Counselling (RC) peer -support systems are usually introduced as part of anti-bullying and stress management strategies in schools and institutions. Students are taught co-counselling using the RC model with the focus on: listening skills; working in pairs; confidentiality; self esteem games; leading and using a support group; supervision; and an understanding of sexism, racism, ageism and disability harassment.
Teachers
in the schools are trained to operate peer support systems
in the form of older buddies for younger students; support
groups; drop-in-counselling sessions run by peer counsellors;
and co-counselling clubs.
Peer
counselling in this context is when students who have learnt
RC counsel one-way students who have not. Co-counselling is
when students who have learnt RC take turns to counsel each
other. Students are supervised by teachers who have been taught
the same model either by me or other RC teachers. School teachers
sometimes set up their own support groups.
The student
training is the equivalent of 5 days and teacher training
is a forty-hour course, although this can be shortened depending
on the school's
requirements. Workshops and support groups are included where
students and teachers from several schools attend and co-counsel
with each other. RC trained young people or RC teachers lead
them assisted by teachers in the schools.
The basic course for peer supporters is 3 days training of about 15-20 students and at least one teacher in the first term with 2 follow on days in the following two terms.
The course covers a spectrum of counselling techniques including listening skills and the use of directions, commitments, validations and emotional expression. The theory includes the following: behaviour patterns; healing processes; the nature of human intelligence; and young people's issues. The practicalities of setting up a peer support system are also covered.
A mixture of: teaching of counselling theory; teacher demonstrations of counselling; and participants practising co-counselling with each other. Strict confidentiality is essential. Students are taught, however, that should any serious disclosure (eg sexual abuse) be made the student or teacher counsellor would be bound by the Children Act to refer on the material to their supervisor. Peer helpers are taught to make this clear at the onset with any students to whom they offer support or counselling.
After
the training in the first term the students are ready to set
up their peer support service which the trained teacher/s
would supervise one session a week. If two or more schools
are running a joint project there can be joint workshops in
addition to the basic training. Students and teachers wishing
to develop further are introduced to the Re- evaluation Counselling
Community Network and other organisations such as the LEAP
Peer Mediation Network.
RC trainers work at any one time in a variety of schools which are at various points of progress towards becoming self sufficient with at least one trained teacher who will train the students to become peer helpers. Many schools are running their own programmes led by teachers who have been trained in this way.
Click here (MS Word, 345kB) to view more information on how to set up a Re-evaluation Counselling peer support system and for case studies of these peer support systems at work.
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