ABLE 4 PRACTITIONERS

“100% of our participants said they would use the skills of the brief intervention model ABLE regularly in practice.”

What is ABLE?

ABLE (Adopt a relational approach, Build, Listen & Empower) is a brief intervention training model that helps to equip you with a framework you can use to support clients who turn to you for help.

Relationships matter.

Relationships in practice matter. Studies show that practitioners’ ability to listen, understand and empathise impacts positively on health and wellbeing outcomes. We provide you with the training and opportunity to develop those skills.

Our accredited ABLE training courses include emerging scientific insights from the fields of relationship theory, Parent-Infant Mental Health, Childhood Development and Interpersonal Neurobiology, to help you understand what may be going on for the children and adults you engage with at work.

Our courses have been developed and fine-tuned over many years. This is in response to changes in knowledge and research, and in response to feedback and evaluations from our trainers, participants and commissioners. Each course is designed for specific practitioners, with relevant scenarios and content to help you to identify with situations in your routine work.

Who is it for?

Any frontline practitioner working in healthcare, social care, education or in community or voluntary roles.

What does ABLE give you?

  1. Interpersonal skills and knowledge to help build your confidence in engaging with service users so that you can develop relationships of trust.
  2. A framework to manage your boundaries of time, role and competence during difficult interactions so that you can look after your own wellbeing.

Continuous Professional Development

Our three-day ABLE brief intervention training covers 16.5 learning hours. Courses are certified and practitioners may apply for Continuous Professional Development (CPD) from their relevant bodies. We welcome opportunities to apply for accreditation with relevant bodies where appropriate.

For further information please contact our office on: fern.higginsatkinson@relationshipsinpractice.ie

Commissioned Training

We work in partnership with you to tailor our evidence-informed ABLE training courses to meet your needs and sector.

Commissioned Training
Let us help you to embed a relationship-centred approach in your organisation. We provide bespoke, commissioned courses with relevant content and scenarios for your group.

We work in partnership with you to tailor our evidence-informed ABLE training courses to meet your needs and sector.

Our courses are facilitated by two licensed trainers who work sensitively with your teams to maximise learning outcomes.

As with all of our courses, evaluation is via qualitative and quantitative feedback, with pre- and post-course questionnaires completed by all participants.

We deliver our commissioned courses virtually or at our head office in Cork or a venue of your choice.

How our training helps you and your organisation.

A new framework for managing difficult interactions.

  • A framework for enhancing relationships in practice and building quality relationships within a service, using a consistent approach
  • Enhance your understanding of relationships as both protective and risk factors in improving health outcomes for clients
  • Improve your capacity to take a reflective approach to practice
  • Better time management and productivity
  • Clarity about role boundaries and competencies
  • Improve your communication skills, particularly active and reflective listening skills
  • Increase your confidence to be proactive in engaging with clients, building rapport and establishing trust
  • Enhance your ability to empathise, engage and respond in a sensitive and proactive
  • Create a safe space for clients to share their worries and concerns
  • Give you the skills to empower clients to make their own decisions, building a narrative of hope and resilience
  • Enhance your personal and professional development, performance and wellbeing
  • Reduce stress levels from feeling overwhelmed or needing to “fix it”
  • Raise self-awareness into attitudes and perspectives which may influence interactions with clients
  • Improve the quality of service and job satisfaction
  • Focus on early interventions
  • Our ABLE model can be used as an informal peer support framework

How our training helps service users.

The gift of time, attention and respect.

  • Share any issues early before they escalate or become entrenched
  • Hear and absorb key messages about relationships, psycho-education and transitions to understand their situations better and to find a way forward
  • Space and time to share concerns and challenges they face in establishing or maintaining healthy and supportive relationships
  • Feel listened to, respected, understood and empowered
  • Become an active participant in their own care as every encounter is person-centred, valuing the service users unique perspective and journey
  • Build people’s capacity and resilience

CASE STUDY

92% of participants also stated their skill levels had increased regarding anticipating moments when clients may struggle in their relationships, using opportunities to offer clients time to talk about their relationships/ worries, and empowering clients to seek their own solutions.

A key element of the course is highlighting the importance of reflective practice to build capacity and maintain wellbeing for both the practitioner and service user.

Our CPD accredited and evidence-based, ABLE training was delivered by two licensed co-trainers who use behaviour modelling and a mix of adult learning styles including auditory, visual and experiential techniques to support the learning experience and enable change.

A group of staff and volunteers from Hospital Family Resource Centre in Limerick completed our tailored 3-day ABLE (Adopt a relational approach, Build, Listen and Empower) training.

All of the participants reported an increased confidence in their ability to recognise and respond to clients in distress in their relationships and have increased knowledge and awareness of the factors that help to build and maintain healthy relationships.

A post-course evaluation revealed that 100% of participants said they would use the skills of the brief intervention model ABLE regularly in practice (75% said either daily or once per week.)