MODULE TWO: COUNSELLING - FHI 360 Center for Global Health ...

3. Help the caller to express his/her feelings and acknowledge the
client’s sense of loss
Ask open-ended questions to help a caller explore and verbalise his/her feelings.
(Ex: “How did you feel watching him/her die?”). Ask him/her what the hardest
thing is to deal with on a daily basis. Acknowledge his/her feelings.
4. Explain what the caller can expect next
For some callers, it may help to explain the stages of the grieving process, so
that they know what to expect and understand that they will eventually be able
to conquer their grief. For example, a counsellor might say to a client who is in
denial: “I know that your wife’s death is hard to accept. Once you are able to
accept that she is gone, however, then you will be able to heal yourself. While
you are recovering from your loss you may experience feelings of guilt or anger,
and you will feel a lot of pain. Eventually, though, you will be able to cope with
your grief.” Such information may be too much for other callers to handle,
especially if they want their grief to disappear overnight. The counsellor will
need to make this decision on a case-by-case basis.
5. Encourage the caller to seek support and develop a plan
Ask caller how s/he has dealt with loss in the past, and help him/her assess
whether this strategy would be appropriate for the present situation. Encourage
the caller to seek support from friends, family members or professional sources.
Provide referrals if necessary.
Counselling Scenarios
1. You are a 35-year old woman whose husband just died of AIDS a week ago.
You have recovered from the initial shock, but are dealing with intense feelings
of anger. He got infected with HIV through having sex with prostitutes behind
your back. You learned a few months before his death that you are also
infected with HIV, but you are not sick yet. You have two children, but luckily
they are not infected. You are scared about caring for them alone and are also
afraid to face the possibility of your own death. A friend told you to call the YEF
HIV/AIDS Hotline to see if there were any support groups that you could join.
2 You are a 15-year old boy whose mother died of AIDS six months ago. You
were very close and still miss her terribly. Your father deserted you when you
were little, so your mother was the head of the household. You have been
forced to drop out of school in order to earn money to support yourself and your
three brothers. You feel guilty that you weren’t able to care for your mother well
enough to keep her from dying. Your aunts and uncles all live back in the
village, so you don’t have any adults to turn to for support. A friend suggested
that you call the YEF HIV/AIDS Hotline to talk to someone about your problems
and see if you could get any help with household expenses.
Session 9 – Pg. 6