The INSPIRE Project: Using the ‘Unknown’ to Co-construct a Training Course on Humanistic Counselling in Afghanistan

Counselling Training in Afghanistan: the Long Term Development of the INSPIRE Project

“…In 2003, 'Mental Health in Afghanistan' became part of a basic package of health services, developed by the Ministry of Public Health. Psychosocial counselling was incorporated in 2010 (National Mental Health Strategy, 2009-2014. Since then a number of intervention programs have been applied to develop mental health training and service resources for the Afghan population (Sayed, 2011).…”

“…The institutions involved were the University of Strathclyde (UK) and the University of Herat (Afghanistan). Because of the success of the project and the high demands for services coming from the Province of Kabul, in addition to Herat, further funding was awarded to extended to a fourth year (Berdondini et al, 2014). During the 4-year project a total of 20 participants completed 120 hours of training in counselling skills, while a sub group of 8 participants were involved in 60 hours of training for trainers.…”

“…These subjects cannot be explicitly discussed between people. Thus, creative methods, culturally meaningful to the group, were introduced to work experientially on self-awareness, skills practice or live demonstrations of therapeutic sessions, such as the use of metaphors, psychodrama, stories and poems, arts, stones and toys (Berdondini, et al, 2014). In this way, the emphasis around developing therapeutic skills was more focused on the 'process' rather than the 'content' and the sessions were often carried out without addressing overtly the actual 'matter'.…”

“…The counsellor's role was mainly to facilitate the client's connection with the experience of being in the 'here and now' and of feelings and meanings related to what was happening, without interpreting or trying to find a solution or directing the work. The outcome of this creative transcultural approach proved to be therapeutically very effective, with feedback from participants stressing the 'life changing' power of the sessions and the entire training (Berdondini et al, 2014).…”

“…The students decided the modality of delivery for each of these lectures and as a result, some of them were led by the trainees themselves and included creative writing, analysing extracts from traditional book texts and facilitating group discussions. The nature of the whole course, since the first year, was 'student-centred' and its structure was 'co-constructed' between trainers and trainees, in the sense that participants were engaged as much as the trainers in deciding which contents were more relevant to their learning and which method of delivery was the most appropriate to their cultural values and needs (Proctor, 2008;Berdondini et al, 2014).…”