Training Burmese refugee counsellors in India

Kerrie James
MSW, M. Litt (Gender Studies) Centre for Refugee Research, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. The author is an experienced in dividual, couple and family therapist who has taught counselling to students and professionals for over 25 years

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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

Since 2007, the Centre for Refugee Rights (Australia) has provided workshops on community development and refugee rights to refugees from Myanmar (Burma). Described herein is one, five-day counselling training programme, which was one component of the workshops, developed for participants from community based refugee organisations who were living in New Delhi and in Aizawl, Mizoram. The author presents an approach to teaching counselling, both within a workshop format, and a refugee context. The components of the counselling workshop are outlined, followed by the author's reflections on providing a counselling training in this context.