THERAPY: Nicola Hunt's interest in working with people led her to a career in counselling.
Nicola Hunt is a graduate of the Human Development and Training Institute of New Zealand with a diploma in counselling and family therapy.
Having worked in business and as a mother of three young children, she was drawn to counselling by her long-time active interest in working with people.
Nicola
says many of the concerns people have in their personal and work environments are relationship-based and can be resolved.
"The way a person relates to another has an enormous impact, constructive or otherwise, and the ripple effect this can produce makes learning to relate in new and healthy ways hugely worthwhile,'' she says.
Relationships are central to everything, she adds. "This is what counselling is about.''
She finds clients discover that how they relate to themselves is just as important as how they relate to others, their concerns and their larger environment. "This relationship includes all aspects of what makes us who we are, and it's what's within us in connection with what surrounds us. Personal awareness, healing, attaining balance, self-care and increasing our skills to carry out life changes are also what counselling is about.''
The four-year course provided by the Human Development and Training Institute of New Zealand integrates theory and practice.
The diploma combines private practice and agency work, such as with Child Youth and Family or Barnardos. Some graduates specialise in couples counselling, working with families, grief work, substance abuse, gender or human rights issues. Others might work with victims of abuse, having obtained Accident Compensation Registration.
