The state of mind that underlies the various services we strive to provide our clients with

In this section we will address 5 of the key concerns that define the kind of services we strive to provide. We will start by defining what we mean by “Facilitation”. We will continue by discussing how this facilitation process will permeate all the services provided by WBW Counseling & Translation Services. We will do so by successively examining: Facilitations, Counseling Services, Translation Services, Employee Assistance Programs, and Counseling / Translations Overlaps.

• Facilitations

According to Rogers (1977), Counseling (more explicitly defined under the section that bears its name) is a process which seeks to solicit a person’s natural abilities, his autonomy, his right to choose the kinds of behavior he wishes to strive for, and ultimately, the ways in which he takes on the therapeutic process and his way of living. Rogers points out that the Counselor's function in the relationship he establishes with his client is primarily a catalytic one. Whatever relationship he ends up being able to estabish, same can be seen as "facilitating" to the extent it can serve to help the client actualize his inherent capacities.

• Counseling Services

Within the English speaking community, are defined as "Counseling" the various therapeutic services that proceed on the basis of the following fundamental philosophical premise: the belief in a person’s inherent dignity and worth, i.e. on the basis of a person’s freedom to determine his own values and goals, and his right to pursue the lifestyle he sees fit to pursue. Based on the understanding that human beings structure themselves largely through the interpersonal relationships they establish with others, Counseling encompasses all those therapeutic approach whose primary aim is to facilitate a process aimed at enabling a person to better explore and adjust his relational attitudes and behaviors, and where possible, to “safely” experiment new ones.

Depending on the objectives and / or ascertained needs of the person who comes to consult, we propose to our clients slightly different “Ways of Listening". Because we deem it essential that what we mean by this be explained as precisely as possible, we have taken the time to elaborate on this subject in greater detail under two different sections of our site, firstly under our "Counseling" section, and secondly under our "Ways of Listening" section. Under this later section, we detail the various nuances (specified under 4 subsections) we refer to, explain how these may be articulated with each other in order to achieve a particularly complete panorama of Counseling options, all consistent with each other.

• Translation Services

Depending on the requests that are put to us, we propose either written translations or "on stage" French-English interpretations or vice versa.

• Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

Better know in the U.S. and Canada, the term Employee Assistance Program (EAP) refers to a Counseling program that is subscribed to by a company for the benefit of its employees. Through this program, the company offers each employee, free of charge and in a strictly confidential and anonymous manner, a subscription for a series of Counseling sessions that the employee is free to use (or not) at his sole discretion and at a pace for him to determine within a given time period. Whilst formally speaking it is the Company that contracts the EAP, the fact remains that it is towards the employees who consults him that the Counselor is fully committed. It is moreover important to note that it has been statistically demonstrated that firms that use EAPs suffer less absenteeism, fewer conflicts on the workplace and have staff that display a higher degree of satisfaction whilst on the workplace. It thus stands to be a win/win program for both the employees and their employers.

• Counseling / Translation overlaps

Is there a juncture at which Counseling services and Translation Services find themselves on a common ground? There most definitely is. The fundamental skill that an interpreter must possess is the ability to faithfully reproduce in a 2^nd language what is expressed in a 1^st language. In respect to people who speak only the 2^nd language, his role is to restitute in a comprehensible and lively way that which is expressed in the 1^st. The interpreter’s task entails his finding a way to somehow “bring to life” a discourse which otherwise would not have contain any life at all for those who whilst fully mastering the 2^nd language know nothing of the 1^st.

Understood in this way, the interpretation skill as described above is one of the Counselor’s most fundamental competencies. Just like the interpreter, the Counselor first task is to attentively listen to his client’s discourse so as to restitute back to him in a slightly different way. From this standpoint, we may define the Counselor as being a person capable of “deeply fathoming” his client’s discourse in such a way as to return back to him that very same discourse yet endowed with a dimension that will often have escaped his client who more often than not finds himself "hemmed into his own world". The Counselor’s aim thus consists in helping his client become more open to his own world. This is the process that is known in the world of counseling as representing a "facilitation" skill.

To conclude I would like to emphasize the extent to which Counselor and Translator are both bent on investing their energy on the basis of a very similar skill, one which aims to facilitate “openings” or "enlivenments".