LESSON 1: Priorities
Introduction to course.
Counselor: Starship officer responsible for the emotional well-being of the ship's crew. A counselor's duties include providing individual guidance and advice to crew members, as well as periodic crew performance evaluations. A counselor is also expected to provide advice to the ship's captain on command decisions. As a counselor, you have a lot of duties to perform, and the above are just some of them. Being a counselor is not an easy job, you must push aside all of your own personal prejudices to deal with many people. You must be open minded and a good listener. It would be a good idea to get to know the people who you are working with, and to do this, you must first collect their character biographies, more commonly known as bios. A good bio can tell you a lot about a person. Collecting bios is the first in a series of important steps to being a good counselor.
Chain of command
The head counselor on a starship is counted among the ship's senior officers. This means that he/she gets to get involved in all of the important meetings. The counselor is the senior officer to all of the ship's civilians, but, the counselor too has his/her own boss. The Chief Medical Officer is in charge of all medical functionsaboard a starship/starbase, and, since counseling falls under the medical field, it is only right to say that the CMO is the counselor's Department Head. In some areas, this may get a little fuzzy, because, the counselor has the power to override the CMO's orders. How, you ask? Well, if the counselor feels that the CMO is under no condition, psychologically, to give orders, then the counselor has the right to temporarily relieve the CMO of duty. This also works with everyone aboard a Starship/Starbase including the First Officer and, yes, the Captain too.
Who are you.
Before you even think about being a counselor there are several things you need to do. First, you need to decide who your counselor will be. What race is he? What kind of counselor will she be? Is he a stickler for rules? Or is she more of a "people" person? Remember that in role-playing, we strive for realism in the Star Trek Universe. Chances are a counselor isn't going to be a Klingon. Think your character through and have a clear understanding of who he/she is. Creating his/her history is very important because it will influence how he/she reacts to certain situations.
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LESSON 2: Commencement
Responsibilities
One of the hardest things to remember as a Starfleet Medical Officer (and one of the things that give you the greatest role-playing opportunities) is the idea of to whom or what you are ultimately responsible. As a counselor, you have a responsibility to your crew to strive to be the best possible counselor you can be. Why, you ask? Well, because you are the mouth of the crew. You speak for the entire crew and in some cases, civilians. You are responsible for the emotional well-being of the crew remember?
Getting to Know Your Fellow Crew/Civilians
There are many different techniques to better get to knowyour fellow crew & civilians. The most common technique is being attentive to your fellow role players' actions & approaching them casually when you see an opportunity. The important part is remembering to approach the person when the opportunity arises. Other techniques include setting up periodic counseling sessions/interviews with your crew, individual sessions, group sessions & get togethers.
PERIODIC COUNSELING SESSIONS:
These sessions are like when your CMO decides to conduct physicals, it is that you just decide that you'd like to have interviews with the crew/civilians to re-evaluate them. You can also ask them to update their bios.
INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS:
Individual sessions are like time with a psychiatrist or psychologist for people who have problems or just want to talk. They can request these sessions or you can require them for all or certain crew members to meet with you.
GROUP SESSIONS:
Aboard your ship, you can supply the setting and observe how the crew reacts. Usually they take place in your office. You'd ask a question and everyone
would respond. Sometimes you can be more creative by doing things in the holodeck or in the gymnasium. These are so you can see how everyone reacts to different things, & also for the crew to get to know more personal things about each
other, as I call it, "GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER AS PEOPLE."
GET TOGETHERS: The Counselor being the one responsible for relations aboard the ship, can & should be involved in get togethers. Get togethers include any parties (birthday, holiday, etc.), celebrations (engagement, marriage, promotions, etc.), getting to know you things, social events, etc. I know, there are a lot of etceteras, but I'm sure that you know what I mean, and if you don't, ASK.
Perceiving situations
To be a counselor, you must be able to think really hard and really good. If someone comes to your office with something on their mind, you must get them to realize that
they have a problem and the only on who can solve it is them. Also, let them know that life is not easy and that problems do occur. A helpful technique on keeping notes on fellow crew-mates is to list issues that you feel needs attention from each crew member. Updating info such as the strengths and weaknesses, background, and past problems that could affect duties is pertinent. Update as often as possible.
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