Foundations of Counselling 2

This Unit of Study is designed to continue students' introduction to the practical skills and processes of counselling provided in Foundations of Counselling 1. Students will engage with, and reflect on interactional styles and problemsolving skills, will study the stages of the problem management model, and will continue to develop their capacity for active empathy. Students will also be introduced to important theoretical approaches to change, including cognitive, behavioural, affective and systemic interventions.

Students who successfully complete this Unit will have the ability to engage with a client over a fifty-minute counselling session, to establish and maintain the therapeutic alliance, assess the client and their problem and resources, explore interventions and strategies appropriate to client needs and presentation, and reflect critically on the counselling process and their own performance. As an essential part of this students will continue to develop their awareness of how their own interpersonal style, beliefs, values and internal processes affect the counselling process. The emphasis of this subject is on experiential learning and feedback so that students have a genuine opportunity to learn skills and to gain an accurate appreciation of both themselves as counsellors and of their clients. Video cameras will be used extensively.

 

Learning Objectives:
After successfully completing this Unit of Study, students should be able to:
1). Establish and maintain a productive working alliance with a client.
2). Demonstrate empathy by using empathic responses.
3). Identify and focus on the key element of a counselling session.
4). Understand the different phases of the counselling process.
5). Connect and appreciate how their own history relates to working with others.
6). Develop a genogram following standard protocols, add detail to a basic genogram, and reflect on patterns in their own genogram.
7). Complete a 50 minute counselling session including the use of appropriate probes and questions, as well as demonstrating points 1, 2 above (i.e., working alliance and empathy).
8). Analyse transcript of session for strengths and weaknesses.

1.5 hour lecture and 1.5 hour tutorial each week.
The tutorial includes supervised practice, experiential exercises, workshops and discussions. Students should normally expect to spend, on average, twelve Students should normally expect to spend, on average, twelve and a half hours of total time (formal contact time plus independent study time) a week on a 12.5 credit point unit.

Genogram & Reflection (3500 words) (Pass/Fail)
Counselling Session (50 minutes): Recording & analysis (5000 words including transcript) Pass/Fail
NB: All assessment tasks must be passed in order to pass this Unit of Study.

Students will be provided with feedback on their progress in attaining the following generic skills:
* Communication skills.
* Analysis skills.
* Problem solving skills.
* Ability to work independently.
* Teamwork skills.

  1). Introduction, Review, Assessment
  2). Egan, Stage 2

  3). Egan, Stage 2

  4). Egan, Stage 3

  5). Defining Strategies

  6). Systemic interventions

  7). Affective Approaches

  8). Cognitive Approaches

  9). Behavioural Interventions

10). Crisis Intervention

11). Review and Termination

12). Personal review and Termination