Basic Counselling Skills: A Guide for Health Workers in Maternal Care

Many health care workers are faced with the emotional problems of women that they see on a daily basis. They often feel helpless because they would like to help, but are not sure about what they should do, or how they should do it.

The ability to be a good ‘helper’ or counsellor depends on knowing your own feelings and thinking deeply about how you behave.

This handbook tries to provide some basic counselling skills – like listening, asking questions and reflecting. There is also an outline for approaches to counselling mothers during pregnancy.