Any Psychology/Counselling Lecturers out there? Tips for surviving 2 or 3 Residential Course?

[Yoksha]

Hi, Need some advice please.

Upcoming situation were we're all locked away for a few days in an hotel. No electronic devices or outside communication. If there's emotional fall-out, it's mandatory to eat all meals together. Performance on this workshop depends on how we progress in the course. Results affect advancement to next stage of diploma.

Normally this wouldn't phase me, but last week in class we had an exercise to decide who'd survive a nuclear armageddon. Picture the first episode of The Apprentice to imagine the chaos. It was like an episode out of Love Island meets Zombie attack!!! Sorry to use tv programmes to set the scene.

Most of us got really upset at how the lesson progressed. Pretty nasty behaviour from some. Hate towards candidates in character suffering from mental health issues, disabilities, near retirement age and a baby with no parents. Now i know it was an exercise, but it had to be seen to be believed.

The results, some walked out. Turned up though for the next session. Some were really confrontational to those who expressed different values. The open hostility seems to have been carried on to the last session. The lecturers had to implement a 45 min mop-up session after the exercise specifically for those that unravelled negatively & exhibited really aggressive behaviour.

I got upset and said " I wouldn't want to survive into a society were you lot got to play god ". Those with skills assigned to their character were discarded because they were older. E.g. despite being a trained medical practitioner trying to secure their survival based purely on logic, they were shouted down simp!y because they were 'past it'. One young bloke even shouted aggressively to someone who was a 64 yr old nurse(in character) " you're menopausal, who'd want to have sex with you"! Some really vile comments along those lines.

I'm so sick with anxiety at being in isolation with them. Not all. But mob-mentality was in operation that day. There's a Gp in the group. They were shocked at the behaviour of some students. The Gp said "I'm concerned that I may have to refer patients with problems in the future".

I get that this is to find out what we're all made of. I'm thinking it was badly organised role-play. I looked at examples on professional websites, mixed opinions. My concerns are for me facing this residential course. I'm pretty pragmatic. It might tip someone over the edge! If the class was anything to go by, it most certainly was destructive. Nothing positive came out from this. I feel very very concerned about the upcoming residential course. Partner told me to toughen up. I get that it was an academic exercise. But it's awful.

I'd welcome constructive logical advice please. And, thanks to anyone who got this far. Sorry it's long.

Erm, I have no advice but am surprised anything like this passes any kind of risk assessment from an ethics point of view? I understand Counselling courses have pretty unique requirements in terms of inter and intra personal skills but this seems extreme.
Gosh, all I can do is wish you the best of luck, keep your career aspirations at the forefront of your mind!

Thanks AlwaysColdHands. Appreciated.

I feel for you OP, some of those residential are hard work. One thing that can help is identifying counter transference, taking a couple of breaths and reminding yourself of the task objective.

What would you say to a client who was having similar difficulties? What tools would you recommend?

Thank you DionThe Diabolist. Good advice. That and hoiking up my big girl pants. I had to face an uncomfortable situation mid-week. As I got closer to the appt. I told myself to get a grip. Channeled inner 'f face' and repeated "f them all to kingdom f". I've not processed the survivor exercise class healthily.

I've taught both of those courses and we didn't use exercises like you describe. There was always overt hostility from some members, some people react very poorly to being challenged. They are of course encouraged to go away and sort it out in therapy.

For course participants I always recommended they kept themselves safe and instead of getting bogged down in the exercise to always look at 'process'. To say you feel someone is being hostile, to asking them if they intend to come across that way.

The exercise is irrelevant, the problem is people are focusing on the content of the exercise rather than the process of deciding the outcome.

Working in groups is really tricky, people always react to what they think someone is saying. A good course leader will get them to focus on why they feel (or react) the way they do. However it's a fine balance with the course leaders as you want them to build their own resilience and take responsibility so it can lead to under or over interfering.

I remember when I was training I felt one of the course leaders was not controlling the group enough. Once I taught the bloody thing I realised how hard it was to get that balance right.

LaurieFairyCake. Really appreciate this advice. Of course you're correct. I've personally been affected by what's been said. I've concentrated on the process rather than the outcome. This just wasn't verbalised strongly enough in the opening stage. There was no group organisation, or a selection/dismissal criteria based on logic. To me it came across as contestants suitable for a 'shag fest' based purely on age and physical appearance. Sorry for the language.