Strategies for living: teaching psychological self-help as adult education

This paper briefly describes some of the traditional approaches to teaching psychological skills and self-help techniques to non-psychologists. It is stressed that there have been few attempts to teach individuals a broad range of self-help strategies for dealing with psychological problems. The paper goes on to give a detailed description of a 12-week course of adult education evening classes designed for this purpose. During the course participants were taught strategies to improve self-awareness and relationships, to control anxiety, confront fears, reduce worrying thoughts, fight depression and cope with major life changes. In the main it appeared that students were able to assimilate and benefit from the techniques offered. It was concluded that adult education classes are an appropriate way of teaching psychological self-help, and provide a relevant alternative to more traditional treatment approaches.