Peer counseling at the AGSBS

In addition to its technical expertise, the Working Group Services Disability and Studies also provides support in other questions of daily life and work at the Technische Universität Dresden. For this reason, peer-to-peer consulting was added to the AGSBS services at the end of 2018 (link to german text).

The advice of certified peer counselor Dipl.-Päd. Anja Winkler is directed at students and prospective students as well as employees of the Technical University of Dresden. The person seeking advice is at the centre of the counselling: by actively listening, each conversation is about the person himself or herself. The person is shown appreciation and respect in a client-centred consultation. In this way, individual solution proposals and strategies are developed to help the person seeking advice with their concerns.

Thematic fields of consulting

Consultations on current study planning as well as individual future plans for students on their career entry and prospective students
Overview of available aids for the workplace and during studies as well as advice on designing an individual workplace at the TU
Information about possible assistance offers and possibilities (e.g. study, work, parental or personal assistance)
Support in applying for various benefits from various cost units (e.g. social welfare, employment agency, integration office or pension insurance)
Participation planning and individual needs assessment as well as disadvantage compensation arrangements
Advice and support with regard to an application for recognition as a hardship case
Personal budget planning
Mediation in conflict situations with other parties and crisis intervention
Systemic consulting (including family genogram, network map etc.)

Of course, such a list can only give a brief insight into the wide range of possible consulting topics. Anja Winkler is always available to help you with individual topics through close cooperation with other counselling centres such as the Commissioners for Students with Disabilities and Chronic Disease at the TU Dresden and a large network in the background.

What is peer counseling?

Peer counseling is the counseling of a person by a counselor with similar characteristics or life situations as the person seeking advice. Ms. Anja Winkler, for example, is blind herself, has studied and thus advises from a completely different perspective than other counselling centres.

The importance of peer counseling has increased enormously in recent years. Since 2009, the Federal Republic of Germany has been legally obligated to ensure a broad range of services through the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The interest group Selbstbestimmt Leben in Deutschland e.V. (Self-Determined Life in Germany) [link to german webtext], founded in 1990, adopted guidelines for peer counsellors [text: german] in 2010, which define emancipation and self-determination as the basis for counselling. On May 16 2017 the Technical University of Dresden adopted an action plan for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Among other things, it provides for the promotion of the expansion of counselling for students with disabilities and chronic illnesses.