RANKIN INLET
A group of 11 support workers finished the first two of a 10-module program on biblical counselling in Rankin Inlet this past month.The course ran from Sept. 2 to 19.

Sam Tutanuak receives his achievement certificate in biblical counselling from Dr. Clair Schnupp in Rankin Inlet this past month. - photo courtesy of Noel Kaludjak

Kivalliq Counselling and Support Service (KCSS) executive director Noel Kaludjak was the assistant instructor for the course, delivered by Dr. Clair Schnupp for the Providence Theological Seminary in Manitoba.

Kaludjak said the module exposes a lot of issues students are dealing with themselves.

As the course progresses, he said students will learn to deal with their issues, as well as understand how the issues manifested themselves.

"The course really makes you look at your life, including how you grew up and reacted to things along the way as a kid," said Kaludjak. "That leads to dealing with how we react to situations around us when we become adults. Once we understand why we react a certain way, we can learn how to help ourselves overcome or alter that reaction.

"Whether it's alcohol or other addiction problems, prejudice, dark things from our past, whatever, it helps us learn how to deal with them, and how to become an effective helper and properly counsel others who ask for help."

Kaludjak said the course is a tremendous training experience.

The counsellors aren't trained by somebody coming in and just telling them what to do.

"During these courses, they make us actually do what they're showing us. It's like on-the-job training and the students actually counsel each other during the course.

"They have an audience with the other students, and their efforts are videotaped so they can revisit them to see where they made mistakes and how to correct them.

"It's a thorough way of training to become a counsellor that takes you right to the very core."

Kaludjak said students often struggle with being honest with themselves.

He said some will even threaten to walk away during the most intense parts of the course.

"It's a very gruelling course, so we keep encouraging them day after day to carry on. The material can be very heavy-duty and that can take a toll on people sometimes.

"But, in the end, the student reaction is always the same and they're very happy they overcame the big hurdles and finished the course."

KCSS cultural support worker Sam Tutanuak said, to him, the course was about getting to know yourself through the Bible, as opposed to what is called science-based learning.

He said the course was aimed at self-help before learning to help others.

"To me it was: 'OK, let's get what's inside of me cleaned out and then I can focus my attention on helping someone else clean out their closet,'" said Tutanuak. "We have another three weeks of intense training scheduled for February 2015 and then, in October, we'll do the final two weeks.

"Once done, we'll receive a diploma from a professor with the Providence Theological Seminary."

Tutanuak said he was more than impressed with the content of the course.

He said it was intense to look into your own personal mirror, and discover any issue you might be hiding away from the outside world.

"You had to be painfully honest with yourself during this course.

"It wasn't easy for me to look at myself like that.

"It was very challenging because, while other people might think I'm a good person, I have to agree, within myself, 100 per cent, that I am a good person."

Tutanuak said one segment of the course that made a big impression on him dealt with the Last Supper.

He said it used Judas exposing Jesus to the Romans to force you to really examine what you feel inside, not what you show the outside world.

"You have to really put yourself in Jesus's place and look at what he saw in Judas. Even though Judas turned him over to his enemy, he had to be able to truly, truly forgive him.

"I'm talking about feeling true forgiveness inside, and that's not an easy thing to do if you're being totally honest with yourself."

Tutanuak said the course forced him to deal with a number of anger issues he thought he had already dealt with in the past.

He said he was shocked to discover he hadn't really dealt with them at all.

"I'd just pushed those issues down deeper inside of me. Then, it was like 40 years of pent-up anger I was dealing with.

"That stops you in your tracks, makes you look at what caused you to take that path, and what you can do to prevent yourself from going down that route again.

"The course involves a lot of self-discovery and it's a route you have to

choose to travel."

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