St. John's Counselling Service Fall 2011 After School Programs

Over 35 years ago a commitment was made by St. John's Cathedral to provide both a spiritual and counselling connection with the Hong Kong community. Today that counselling commitment continues to grow in services and resources for Hong Kong's vibrant multi-cultural community at St. John's Counselling Service (SJCS) for children, teens, adults and organizations, irregardless of race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, religious or faith.  We provide counselling services for Chinese, Spanish, and English speaking clients with our well educated and experienced counsellors who are from Hong Kong, U.S., U.K. Australia, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan. In other words, whether our clients are non-religious, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindi or any other faith or religion or ethnic/race background, our counselling services are based upon a positive psychology model that focuses on growth and happiness.

Our Individual Counselling - Workshops Philosophy
SJCS mission is "to empower the human spirit towards greater awareness in making choices for growth and happiness." Our mission is derived from over 20 years of research, clinical experience, and principles from positive psychology whereby a balance is sought after in our counselling sessions and special programs for kids, teens and adults with empowering each of our clients to i) better manage and reduce their anguish (i.e. the unpleasant emotions and thoughts) and  ii) learn and practice optimal thinking and positive behaviors (i.e. the happy life).

Regarding our children and teens, academic and clinic research shows that happiness breeds success. Happiness can start contributing to achievement and success early in life. Children who experience positive attachments with their parents and siblings will feel good about themselves and subsequently perform better at school. Children and teens who are in happier moods learn quicker social skills, have freedom from excessive worrying, are able to develop resilience and early on develop a positive self-esteem. Furthermore, happiness also boosts mental performance in spelling, math, reading and problem solving skills. In short, happy kids tend to perform better, faster and more successful in a learning environment.

A key happiness ingredient for our children and teens is the ability to develop and sustain personal relationships at school, after-school activities and with their families. Children who tend to make friends easily and get along with others in a classroom, playground or organized activity early on breed social and emotional competence that follows them into adult life. Few adults can lead a happy and successful life who cannot get along with others in a work and social setting. Hence, our chances in becoming "successful" adults starts from experiencing positive relationships with our families, friends and others as kids and teens.

Our Caring Counsellors
St. John's Counselling Service counsellors are either Counselling/Clinical Psychologists and/or Clinical Social Workers with years of counselling experience and reputable academic qualifications from Hong Kong and overseas institutions. Our counsellors are interactive in each counselling session, striking a balance between active listening and co-exploring options and opportunities to resolve many of life's challenges and opportunities. SJCS counsellors are both male and female with English, Chinese, and Spanish language skills. Our counselling staff also bring forth successful experiences and training in art and play therapy for children-teens-adults, depression, grief, cutting, bullying, self-esteem, anger management, substance abuse, parenting, anxiety-panic attack, stress management, relationship, school-job performance, career - life coaching, dealing with difficult people, and work-life balance.

Our Positive Approach
Depending on the age of the child or teen, and as well the counselling goals, our counsellors will either use art therapy, play and structured activities, and/or traditional counselling processes in each session. The individual sessions are usually one hour in duration, small groups can sometimes last up to ninety minutes. Our counselling centre is a professional, warm and casual setting whereby our kids and teens do not feel like they are in a medical clinic setting because they have "something wrong with them."

After School Programs (Small Groups and/or Individual Sessions)

☺ Addiction and Abuse with Technology (online games, texting, computers)

☺ Anger Management

☺ Body Image and Self-Esteem

☺ Career Planning

☺ Creativity and Thinking Hats

☺ Depression and Unpleasant Emotions

☺ Grief and Loss (Death, Divorce, Relocation-Moving)

☺ Phobias and Fears (School, Social, Presentations - Public Speaking)

☺ Sexuality: Feelings and Behaviors

☺ Sibling Rivalry

☺ Substance Abuse (alcohol, cigarettes, drugs)

Program Time
Small group programs will commence in September 2011, individual counselling sessions are available all year round. Meeting times are usually scheduled either day, afternoon, evenings or weekends.

Venue
St. John's Counselling Service - Central Hong Kong. These programs can also be contracted with local and international schools in Hong Kong.

Medium of Instruction/Materials
English, Chinese and/or Spanish

Registration
Email your request to enroll in either the small group program or for individual sessions at info@sjcshk.com and an application form will be sent to you for completion. All information provided is confidential and private, and is never released to any third party.

Program Fees
Small group fees are $3,500 (total of 6 workshops) per child or teenager. Individual sessions fees are based on a sliding fee scale per child or teenager (there are no limitations or minimal required sessions). Fees include all materials, snacks and Certificate of Achievement upon completion of the program. Fees can be paid in cash and/or cheque upon registration. Due to limited space, all fees for small group workshops are non-refundable. Any cancellations, the fees can be applied towards other St. John's Counselling Service programs and services.

Our Affiliations
As an Organizational Member of BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy) we are bound by its Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy, the Ethical Guidelines for Researching Counselling and Psychotherapy (where organizations undertake research) and subject to the Professional Conduct Procedure for the time being in force.

St. John's Counselling Service is a professional member of the American School Counselors Association (ASCA - U.S.) with a commitment to the development and delivery of nurturing, empowering and strengthening activities for children and teens to enhance their growth and happiness.

St. John's Counselling Service is a recognized clinical supervision site for world-class universities to train and supervise students at bachelor, master and doctorate level degree programs in psychology and counselling with Hong Kong University HKU Family Institute, Monash University (Australia), City University (Hong Kong), Alliant University (U.S.), and the Shue Yan University (Hong Kong), Australian College of Applied Psychology, and University of New England (Australia).

Email: info@sjcshk.com