Should Individual Counselling be a Luxury? Re-Evaluation Counselling

Re-Evaluation Counselling (RC) is a form of peer counselling and is also often called co-counselling. All participants are trained in the theory and techniques so that although co-counsellors may differ in levels of experience, we meet and session together as equals. Its the only practice of human growth and development I know, which places the hurts caused by socio-cultural oppression (starting with the oppression of parents and young people and including racism, classism, sexism etc.), at the core of human distress and imparts a number of methods and group processes to address these.

Re-Evaluation Counselling isn't a luxury. The training is affordable and once you've learnt it, its free.You can have a session in many countries on the planet with another RCer and it will only cost the price of the trip you paid to get there. Workshops cost, but that's your choice.
One of  the most important features of co-counselling is the emphasis on emotional release.

The idea that we have all we need to recover from any hurt we may experience sounded revolutionary to me when I first heard it. Equally counter-cultural was the idea that crying, yawning, shaking, storming, laughing and talking are not painful in themselves but are actually the processes we use to recover from hurts. We all do these when we are young but many adults try their best to socialize us out of them. I think people know that laughter and talking release tension and that crying can feel good - although most people will still offer a cup of tea or a stiff drink to try to stop you from going on too long.

But yawning, shaking and storming? Almost no-one except co-counselors and athletes (and now the dozens I have counseled at the Trauma Centre in Cape Town) seem to know that yawning wakes you up, as well as providing many other benefits. And shaking? Well shaking has gone through a renaissance thanks to Dr Berceli and his Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) designed to get everyone "tremoring". But RCers have known of the benefits of shaking to release fear for over 50 years. Storming, the energetic release of anger, is conventionally considered dangerous, uncontainable, so that children who do it need to be stopped. However it takes so much energy to suppress this in oneself that it literally can cause depression.

Another great advantage of this method is that you can do it for the rest of your life, using it for many goals you wish to achieve. I can vouch for the difference it makes to the sharpness of one's thinking, the vibrancy it adds to ones life and relationships and the boldness with which one feels free to interact. Not all of us regain these qualities we once had, but releasing fear and other tensions makes a huge difference to the thousands of practicing RCers in communities across the world. If you want to know more try this link as a start on the Re-Evaluation Counselling website.