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We are a group of students formerly known as the Ateneo Peer Counselors Group (APCG), which was the student arm of the Loyola Schools Guidance Office (LSGO). Under this group, the members underwent peer counseling and facilitator trainings that equipped them with skills needed to “help others help themselves” within the Ateneo community. It is this phrase that inspired Boni Ang to found the APCG together with counselor, Bing Solomon, in 1991. To “help others help themselves” was his mission, and he wanted to form a group of students who believe in this mission, and are dedicated to fulfilling this mission.





Being a peer counselor himself when he was in high school, Boni looked for a peer counseling group in college but couldn’t find any. He sought the assistance of the Guidance Office to establish such a group who believed in his mission. Finally, in 1991, he and Bing became successful in turning his dream into reality by organizing the group that eventually became known as the APCG.

The mission of the APCG was to “help others help themselves” by being peer counselors. The main task of Peer Counselors (PCs) was to be effective friends by actively listening to their peers.





For 14 years, the PCs were the “eyes and ears” of the Guidance Office within the Ateneo community; being the Guidance Office’s means of reaching out to students, they reached where the office could not (e.g. through personal friendships and in cases where students are intimidated by the authority of the Guidance Office). The PCs were there to rest assure the Guidance Office that there are fellow students or friends within the campus who are trained to take care of students in need, who are capable of conducting various Facilitator’s trainings or handling tutoring programs, and who could identify cases that need to be referred to the Guidance Counselors.

However, upon reevaluating its purpose, goals, and situation, the group has decided to take a different path and become an independent organization with the intention of serving beyond the walls of the Ateneo. The group continues to believe in the essence of counseling and training and would like to continue serving in the light of helping others help themselves. With a new name but with the same passion and commitment, PEERS hopes to extend its services to anyone who may need it, whether it be inside or outside of the Ateneo community.





Since 2004, PEERS has been acting independently of the guidance office and yet still continuously train its members in skills necessary to be effective peer counselors with the help of counselors, teachers and old APCG members. In addition to this, PEERS has taken up the task of extending itself to outside communities and reaching out to those in need of the group’s assistance. After months of preparation and planning, PEERS underwent a pioneering activity wherein it sent volunteers to the calamity stricken areas of Quezon. Accompanying other psychologists who specialize in calamity debriefing, those PEERS members present were able to help public and private high school students from Nakar, Quezon cope with the tragedy they experienced last December 2004.

Vision

We envision ourselves to be a family of peer coaches dedicated to helping others help themselves in terms of identifying, accepting, and satisfying their emotional, mental and psychological needs.

Mission

Our mission is to establish a family of peer coaches dedicated to empowering it’s own members through training and teaching the person-centered technique of counseling and allowing them to discover their own potentials. With this, they become equipped in facing life’s challenges and extending themselves to facilitate and offer emotional, psychological and mental support and guidance to individuals inside and outside the Ateneo.




In PEERS, we have a unique advocacy that caters to our fellow students' psychological and emotional needs. We provide counseling, phase trainings and facilitation services not only to members but also individuals or groups outside the organization (even outside the Loyola Schools).





The PEERS today tries its best to be more proactive through different activities such as Dream Interpretation Workshops, Stress and Anger Management Workshops that will serve as different avenues of addressing student concerns and problems.



During the phase trainings, they will be able to know themselves better through self-awareness activities. Our members will also be taught the person-centered technique of counseling that will equip them to become peer coaches, providing emotional support and guidance to others.



We foster a family like atmosphere that enables members to get to know their co-members well and have better working condition with them. PEERS members not only make a difference within them but also in the lives’ of the people they reach out to. We listen. We care. We help others help themselves.

Contact us at 09172080440

Phase Trainings -- What's that?


To be a member of the organization, aspirants have to complete 3 phase trainings during the 1st semester.



Phase 1 focuses on the individual’s self-understanding. It helps the aspirants know more about their self-concepts and allows them to evaluate their traits such as competence and worth. It helps them pin-point their strengths and weaknesses and aids them in creating a whole inner picture of themselves. Phase 1 is very I-focused in that it talks about what I like/dislike, how I would act/talk, what I would choose/ignore. At the end of it, we realize how what we do, say, act, feel, and think, ultimately affects others.




In Phase 1.1, activities like the Carousel, Rainbow Connection, and the Personality Test open up the individual to his/her likes, fears, quirks, and uniqueness. It paves way for sharing with co-aspirants. In Phase 1.2, activities like Choices of the Heart, Tres Papelitos and Road Map help the aspirants discover things about the past and allow them to consider how to form decisions in the present. Road map in particular promotes an openness to what the future may hold. Phase 1.3 is the culmination of Phase 1. It includes the Empty Room and Inner Child. These two activities are fun yet at the same time calming. While the Empty Room gets people talking about their needs and wants, the Inner Child allows them to reflect more of how their childhood affects who they are now.



Phase 2 allows the aspirants to bond with each other more. The focus shifts from the self to others. It introduces the basics of counseling as well as the SOPs. Instead of talking about what I prefer or what I would choose, Phase 2 moves into how my action would affect you or how what I said can help you. It can get a little more formal, but the fun activities make up for the standard things we learn.



Phase 2.2 starts with the activity called Draw This, and is followed by a series of lectures about the dimensions of counseling, how to be an effective listener, and attending to non-verbals. 2.2 is capped off by the Triads activity in which the aspirants are able to apply what they learned in the three lectures. This is one of the more enjoyable activities because it stresses the things we aren’t always conscious of everyday. Phase 2.3 begins with lectures on listening and responding, the phases of counseling, as well as the differences between problems, crises and emergencies. The culminating activity for 2.3 would be the Morphing Counselor wherein aspirants act as counselors to their facilitator counselees. Phase 2.3 completes the sessions of phase 2.




However, Phase 3 is different compared to the first 2 trainings. This last phase of the PEERS Facilitator Trainings is the culminating event where the knowledge and lessons acquired through the previous phases will be tried and tested. Usually held for 3 days at the beginning of the semestral break, Phase 3 is the last and most fulfilling of all phases. Not only do the aspirants officially become members, this momentous event also serves as a bonding session for the old and new members of the org! One of the many activities for this phase involves the Stations where an old member acts as the counselee and the new members apply their previous trainings. Trust is important in counseling and as such, one of the activities for this training session is the Trust Walk where aspirants are blindfolded and led around the grounds by their 'parents'. Truly this phase is an event to behold, here relationships begin between the old and new members and not only act as an ender to the phase trainings but as a beginning for better camaraderie within the organization.




The new members for SY 07-08 after the Trust Walk


The Core and the facilitators after the Trust Walk
done by the new members themselves. Revenge time, huh?




The new members of PEERS SY 2007-2008 =D

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