The Philippine Embassy in Lebanon, in partnership with the Afro-Asian Migrant Center (AAMC), conducted a three-day seminar-workshop for Embassy personnel and Filipino community leaders from 8 to 10 November.

The workshop titled “How to De-stress Distressed OFWs”, aims to enhance participants counseling skills through lesson on theoretical concepts on personality development, stress and crisis situations and proven counseling methods. Resource persons and facilitators were Fr. Henry Ponce, SJ, Director of AAMC, and Fr. Roberto Archie Carampatan, SJ, University Chaplain of Xavier University -Cagayan de Oro. A total of 35 participants attended the training session.

The seminar-workshop provided a safe and constructive environment for participants to explore cases involving stress and crisis situations by making use of simulations, focus group discussion, personal reflections and sharing of experiences.

Facilitators underscored the importance of body language and the ideal traits of a counselor in order to achieve a positive and effective counselor-client dynamic.

They also stressed the importance of timely intervention in crisis cases in order to achieve the best possible chance of restoring a client’s mental and emotional health.

The seminar-workshop was an intense, rich and enjoyable experience, and received positive and supportive feedback from all participants.

In her closing remarks, Ambassador Bernardita Catalla expressed confidence the life skills gained from the training session will enable Embassy personnel and Filipino community leaders to become better colleagues and service providers to distressed Filipinos.

The Embassy intends to undertake more capacity-building activities in order to better serve its clients.