Counseling Functions: Basic Counseling Information - Individual Counseling Skills
A 15-hour course that provides introductory information on the core function of counseling, specifically individual counseling skills.  This course presents an overview of the eight basic communication skills used by all counselors in the function of individual, group, and family counseling.  It includes an overview of the therapeutic approaches typically utilized in substance abuse counseling, and presents a look at the variety of treatment offerings used in the field today.  This course is part of our basic training series, designed to provide the core hour needed for initial credentialing.  

Goals/Objectives

By participating in this Distance Learning Course the trainee will:

  1. define the eight basic communication skills used in counseling;
  2. recognize how and when each skill is to be used in an effective counseling situation;
  3. examine the major theories of change that are used in the delivery of addiction treatment services;
  4. identify the skills and basic tenents of each of these theories;
  5. review case studies to help understand application of these theoretical approaches;
  6. identify each of the major treatment modalities currently used in treating addictive disorders;
  7. understand the application of these modalities to the various treatment populations served;
  8. learn about the behaviors of transference and counter-transference.

 

Your Course Instructor:
Kevin R. Scheel
MS, MAC, LMFT
Co-Founder, DLCAS

Kevin R. Scheel is a Masters prepared chemical dependency counselor with more than twenty-three years of experience in the human service field. He has served as the director of programs in the public sector as well as in private care facilities, both in the profit and not-for-profit arenas. He has been involved in the delivery of education services to the field since 1986 as an instructor at McLennan Community College and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and as a private training consultant with Hazelden. Mr. Scheel is the author of "Alcohol: Chemistry & Culture," as well as a series of education videotapes on the various drugs of abuse, published and marketed by WRS Group, Inc. He has also created a preparation and review manual that is currently in use by a variety of colleges and universities in Texas, designed to aid students preparing for their Texas chemical dependency credential.

While in Texas Kevin served as the Texas Coordinator for the federally funded Project for Addiction Counselor Training (PACT) program. For this project Mr. Scheel designed a 270 hour curriculum for beginning counselors, delivering over 45,000 hours of classroom training to 415 minority students. As a result of his efforts, 268 of these students have gone on to obtain their credentials to practice chemical dependency counseling in Texas.

Kevin also served in the position as Coordinator for the Texas Addiction Training Center (currently the Texas Addition Technology Transfer Center), a federally funded project from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in Washington, D.C. The goal of this project has been to increase the level of addiction education to the various disciplines offering counseling services to drug and alcohol affected clients. In Texas this project worked with 8 major colleges and universities.

Kevin is one of the co-founders of the DLCAS.  He continues to be active as a writer/author of materials for this training service.