Peer Support Specialist Counseling Course – Fundamentals

 
This course is only open to attendees in the Reentry Peer Support Program. In addition to this course, you will be provided with practicum opportunities and a mentor.

 

Course Objectives

At the end of the course, you will be able to:

  • Provide peer support counseling using common strategies such as active and empathetic listening, summarizing, and reflection in a trauma-informed manner
  • Apply the basic principles of motivational interviewing
  • Develop SMART goals and recovery plans 
  • Distinguish peer support from clinical care 
  • Be able to respond effectively to crises and know how and when to provide referrals to professional or emergency services
  • Set appropriate boundaries and know how to use appropriate self-disclosure 
  • Create a plan to manage your own wellbeing 
  • Describe the signs of bias and (counter)transference and how to respond to them 
  • Outline the main categories of the peer support model

 

Facilitators:

Dr. Kirk Hopkins;  Dr. Stephanie Kutzen, &   Lauren  

 

Course Timeline and Syllabus

Orientation 

Introduction to the peer support specialist program

Discuss the course syllabus, objectives, and benefits

Review the evaluation tools for the course 
Session 1  Peer support role, limitations, and crisis management 
Session 2 

Peer support counseling principles and techniques:

  • Agenda-setting, active listening, and empathetic responses 
Session 3 

Peer support counseling principles and techniques:

  • Collaboration, two-way feedback, and summarizing 
  • Maintaining personal recovery as a peer support
Session 4  Setting boundaries, using self-disclosure, and responding to bias, transference, and countertransference 
 
Session 5  Stages of change and motivational interviewing
Session 6  Wellness, goals, and recovery planning
Session 7 
  • Evaluation
  • Presenting recovery plans 
  • Practice modeling counseling techniques
Session 8 
  • Evaluation:
  • Presenting recovery plans 
  • Model counseling techniques
  • Wrap-up, reflection, and next steps
 

 

Evaluation: 

  • Apply the principles of peer support counseling under real-life observation
  • Create sample SMART goals and a recovery plan
  • Counseling sessions and observed and evaluated using CTS-R
  • Peer evaluates the sessions using SRS V.3.0 
  • Peer support specialist can measure his client’s outcome using Recovery  Oriented Systems Indicators, (ROSI)

 

Materials for this section can be found here: Caseworker Portal 🔒 →