Self as a teaching tool

Exploring power and anti-oppressive practice with counselling/psychotherapy students

Abstract

Counselling and psychotherapy training often incorporates experiential learning to help students understand and explore different aspects of self. Lecturers and tutors, facilitating such courses, can also share aspects of their lived experience, as a form of experiential learning. This article describes a workshop on power and anti-oppressive practice that was delivered to counselling students in a Master of Arts (MA) in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice. Two lecturers (Beverley and Peter) used their lived experiences of racism and homophobia to stimulate student discussion and debate—effectively, they were using self as a teaching tool. This article details their experiences and reflections whilst in discussion with two students (Ann-Marie and Ben), who attended the workshop.