The ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry is pleased to announce the piloting of the upcoming course:
“Vaisnava Life Counseling: A Practical framework to support individuals and congregations”
It will be delivered in Sridhama Mayapur from October 14 to 23rd, 2016 in partnership with the Mayapur Institute. There is a minimal fee to cover printing material and basic costs for this course.
This 10 day on-campus course is for devotees intending to improve their skills in providing support and care to their congregations in Srila Prabhupada’s movement. It will present a theoretical and practical framework with the aim of establishing a healthy approach so that devotees in leadership, counseling, preaching, teaching, or other similar roles are better able to give support in ISKCON to fellow devotees.
This long awaited course aims to address the need to efficiently assist devotees who may be struggling in different areas of their lives (marital, youth, emotional, parenting, crisis, vocational, spiritual, etc.). The objective of the course is to equip participants with a set of recognized tools and skills which can be applied according to Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on social and personal issues.
The course includes foundational skills in the areas of communication, counseling (empathic listening, coping mechanisms, goal setting, etc.), referral processes, self-care, conflict resolution, and community development amongst others. In order to better understand and inform practice, the course material also includes extensive reference to what Srila Prabhupada said about given situations and difficulties that devotees may experience.
There is a broad range of benefits and opportunities that can be drawn from this course. To name a few:
· ISKCON devotees will receive more personal and informed support.
· Preachers will be able to enrich their local initiatives through improved congregational support.
· Managers will improve their teams’ personal dynamics.
· Devotees in “caring” roles will be better able to care for themselves and avoid burnout.
· ISKCON will make inroads in developing best practice guidelines, ethical standards and standardized training for current and potential counselors.
· Younger devotees can dedicate themselves to learn counseling for assisting others.
We encourage devotees responsible for guiding others (preachers, leaders, counselors, etc.) or who have a clear inclination to help other devotees to take advantage of this course. For further enquiries and enrolment, please write to:
cdmsecretary@gmail.com
Your servant,
Iksvaku dasa (Social Worker, Trained Mental Health Counselor – Perth, Australia)
ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry
“Helping you to expand your Congregation”
Phone number: (91) 3472245619
Facebook page: Iskcon Congregation
Website: www.iskconcongregation.com
Kindly donate at: www.iskconcongregation.com/content/donate