Yay!!! In September 2023, the Dene Wellness Warriors and Rhodes Wellness College begins delivering the second Northern Indigenous Counselling (NIC 2) program to train more Indigenous counsellors in Yellowknife.
Last May we graduated 15 counsellors from 10 different communities. So, if you’ve always wanted to be a counsellor but didn’t want to go south for training, this is your big chance.
You also train with other Indigenous people from the NWT. Yippee! Woohoo! Yahoo!
This counselling program will have all Indigenous students and it’s experiential, meaning you experience all the techniques you learn. So, you’re working on yourself while you’re learning.
When I finished the first year of this 18-month program, one of my classmates said ‘wow, it was just like going to rehab for a year, except I came out with an education.’ Eschia!
Graduates of the NIC program are eligible to join the Canadian Professional Counsellor’s Association. To boot, they should be a top-notch workshop developer and facilitator.
And of course, they all receive a wellness counsellor diploma, a life coach certificate and a professional counsellor diploma, all in less than two years.
Don’t forget, this program is being taught in Yellowknife, not Vancouver! LOL. It will be taught in six semesters, each three months long.
And, very importantly, NIC students are eligible to receive student financial assistance from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE). Very cool.
Counsellors help people
Let’s look at how you can help people as a counsellor after taking NIC2.
To begin with, you can help people to deal with issues like depression, grief and anxiety. Eating healthy foods and exercising is great, but the benefits of interacting with a real human cannot be replaced.
Talking to friends or family is fine for some people, but many others prefer to openly and honestly discuss their issues with a trained professional, a stranger that will listen without judgment.
It’s pretty cool to be able to help people with things like relationships, difficult life events and various mental health problems. Oh ya!
People who share things with you, the counsellor, often find they are relieved of thoughts or feelings that they’ve been keeping to themselves. Telling you about their thoughts and emotions helps them see things differently since it’s no longer just in their mind. Plus, you will ask them questions to encourage them to explain things.
Too many people are so busy they may not have time to process remorse, guilt, grief, or sadness. Once you become a counsellor, you will encourage people to face those challenges and empower them by providing them with tools to help themselves. Woohoo.
Also, you will act as a neutral third party for people in relationships who come to you to help them to see each other’s perspective and perhaps to mediate for them.
Knowing they can rely on you to listen to their problems helps clients avoid worrying about their problems all the time. Say what? Yup, unloading their emotions to you helps your clients move on.
Clients get physical benefits from counselling too: better sleep, more energy and less stress. This can mean they get more active, which in turn increases positive feelings by releasing endorphins. Well yaaaaaa!
And don’t forget, people who examine their emotions with you usually feel more at peace and have improved self-awareness and increased self-esteem and confidence.
My instructor used to say that counselling is the greatest thing since sliced bread because anyone can benefit from it: the young, the middle-aged and the elderly. Right on.
Yes, there are many awesome reasons to become a counsellor.
And like everything else, it’s not for everyone. For instance, you will have to be sober for a year if you want to take this program. You will go through heavy emotions during the course and being sober will help you through it.
If you think you might want to become a counsellor, you can get more information about NIC 2 training by emailing nwtcounselling@rhodescollege.ca