Positive Psychology Resources

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, Japanese, Indian, French, and English speaking clients with our well educated and experienced counsellors who are from Hong Kong, U.S., U.K. Australia, South Africa, France, Canada, India and Taiwan. In other words, whether our clients are non-religious, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindi or any other faith, religion or ethnic/race background, our counselling services are based upon a positive psychology model that focuses on growth and happiness.

Today St. John's Counselling Service continues to enhance our commitment to strengthening our community with both an out-patient substance abuse counselling service in Hong Kong and a residential treatment/rehabilitation program with our Duty to Care partners in Thailand and the United States. Our measurement of success in our substance abuse and addiction service is not about how many days/years a person has been sober, our success is measured on two key and sustaining forces that allow sobriety and/or responsible drinking to be an enduring reality: a healthy body-mind (exercise, diet) and living the happy life (principles of positive psychology - lifestyle, mindset). Hence, our treatment program recognizes that we do need to have an assessment for planning a course of treatment at the onset, but impressing upon our clients that they have inherited or acquired addiction/abuse as part of their person that shall last a lifetime at the end of treatment actually keeps those individuals stuck in the disease label/problem instead of motivating them to overcome and terminate the problem (read more below). As government statistics worldwide report,

Our Substance Abuse/Addiction Philosophy
There still remains today vast disagreements in the healthcare, legal and academic circles as to the nature of substance abuse/addiction and what type of treatment is successful for termination of such an abuse or addiction. Alcohol and drugs continue to be the main focus on addiction-abuse behavior, but as societies worldwide evolve into a more digital-online world, we now have a new set of abuse-addiction issues to be concerned with: online gambling, internet pornography, BlackBerry and texting, iPod, internet chat rooms, video game consoles, and file sharing. Our modern world may have brought us new toys and sources of enjoyment (as well as knowledge and connections to others), but families, schools, businesses and individuals are now seeking counselling for abuse and addiction support in many areas we as a society were simply not prepared for. At St. John's Counselling Service (SJCS) we have dedicated time and resources to better understanding abuse and addiction behaviors, and as a result, we have now developed an effective, affordable, professional and comprehensive model for substance abuse and addiction. In the near future we shall be launching counselling programs for technology (internet porn, online gambling, video games) and horse racing and casino gambling abuse and addiction.

First, let's clarify the differences between abuse and addiction. Abuse is the "problematic" use of a drug or alcohol whereby two elements are present: a) the abuse causes repeated social problems at work, family, legal and other social settings, and b) the substance abuse in question is used as a defense-denial-coping mechanism in dealing with unpleasant emotions that arise from life's challenges (marital discord, work, stress, parent-child dynamics, etc). Addiction on the other hand involves two key distinctions from abuse: a) the physical-medical problems such as physical withdrawal when a person tries to reduce or quit use (as well as possible body organ damage), and b) extreme psychological difficulties-thought patterns such as a person being preoccupied with obtaining, using and/or trying to recover from a substance. Additional clinical experiences and research also highlight the fact the abuser or addict can exist in one of the following groups: anti-social addict/abuser who seeks pleasure without restraint or concern about what others think, and psychological abusers/addicts who seek relief for their emotional pain and suffering. Hence, before any treatment can commence, we must first understand "the nature of the beast:" abuser or addict, anti-social or psychological.

Unfortunately even with this knowledge present, those with only an alcohol abuse diagnosis (anti-social or psychological trait) who enter into a 12 step program are constantly being told they are an "addict" and have a "disease that will last a lifetime." We acknowledge (and encourage all our clients to enroll in) the various 12-step programs such as AA for their support role for alcohol abusers and addicts, however the effectiveness of placing a pathology label (such as "I have a disease called addiction that will be with me a lifetime") on a person has not been shown to be effective in substance abuse recovery nor the termination of such an abuse and/or addicition.

On the other hand, there are far greater numbers of individuals who had either an alcohol abuse or alcohol addiction issue who never entered into a 12-step program or

Government statistics worldwide

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 exploring options and opportunities to resolve many of life's challenges and opportunities. SJCS counsellors are both male and female with English, Chinese, Japanese, French, and Indian language skills, with 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.

Group
There are three (3) age groups for the summer program. Group 1 is for the age group 5-8, Group 2 is for age group 9-10, and Group 3 is for age group 11-12.

Program Time
Commences June 30 (Monday) ending August 4 (Monday). Morning (9-11:30AM) or afternoon (1-2:30PM) workshops available. Groups are to meet once a week for either the morning or afternoon session for a period of six (6) weeks.

Venue
South Island School - Room 222.

Medium of Instruction/Materials
English

Registration
Email your request to enroll in the program at info@sjcshk.com and an application form will be sent to you for completion. Registration ends Friday June 27, 2008 at the end of the business day. All fees and registration forms must be received by St. John's Counselling Service by no later than June 27, 2008.

Social Skills Summer Program Fees
$2,800 per child. 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 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.

SJCS is also in partnership with Hong Kong University HKU Family Institute and the Shue Yan University (Hong Kong) - University of New England (Australia) master's degree in counselling programs as an internship placement centre for their students to acquire advanced counselling skills and knowledge as so provided by SJCS positive psychology counselling model and extended years of experience in counselling.

Email: info@sjcshk.com