Counselling Skills II
Counselling Skills II
Course Detail
Students will read the required textbook or manual. for each section below and answer a series of essay-type questions relating to the material in the textbook.
They will submit their answers by uploading them to Moodle. The Instructor will evaluate the answers and give the student a mark. 80% is a pass for each section.
A certificate will be given to a successful student. The Instructor will provide support if needed for the duration of the program. Prospective students can challenge the sections below based on prior learning.
Abnormal Psychology (30hrs.)
Course Outline:
- By the end of this course, students are introduced to a wide range of cases showing the intricacies of diagnosing and treating mental illness from multiple perspectives. This course will help a student understand how culture, family, and work factor into a person’s mental health.
- The student will be introduced to the before, during, and after diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of a client’s individual experience with mental health disorders through detailed case studies.
Learning Objectives
To be introduced to a wide range of cases, including Schizophrenia, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Depressive Personality Disorder, Delusional Disorder, Panic Disorder, borderline Personality Disorder, and Antisocial Personality disorder.
To highlight the intricacies of diagnosis and treatment. To deepen the students’ understanding of specific disorders through the study of presenting problems, client descriptions, diagnosis, case formation, course of treatment, outcomes, prognosis, and treatment follow-up.
Client and Counsellor conversations are included to help the student appreciate the uniqueness of each client and their experiences influencing diagnosis and treatment.
Offer students a more in-depth understanding of the psychopathology and effects of treatment in the long term.
Family Therapy (30hrs.)
Course Outline:
- One of the tenants the authors of this book hold is that they believe “clients are strengthened when the therapist can enlist family members in caring for each other.”
- To offer practitioners and students the tools and educational skills to integrate family therapy into their practice. Using examples of multiple theories and techniques in the areas of conducting extensive assessments, creating treatment plans with and for the family, and counselling concerns.
- This book focuses on the family and the therapist. Offering case studies and up-to-date family therapy skills for beginners and those wishing to upgrade their family therapy skills.
Learning Objectives
The identification of new therapist concerns, including confidence and building their skills in multiple techniques as well as clinical issues.
Examples of the sequence of therapy, from the initial contact with clients through extensive assessment, treatment planning, and interventions.
By the end of this course, counsellors will have the tools to be in relationship with the family and their unique needs leading to a well thought out treatments.
UnderstandCase studies are offered to deepen the study of working with families, children, adolescents, older adults, and couples living with serious mental illness.
The study of common roadblocks all counsellors encounter and creative ideas to move through the blocks.
Areas covered:
Managing anxiety and confidence
Therapists development
Burnout
Before the Initial Interview – developing connection, administrative issues, motivation, and credibility.
Guidelines for Conducting Assessment – initial assessment, Potential issues of harm, assessing for substance abuse, psychological assessment, social assessment, spiritual assessment, assessing social systems, assessing larger systems: context, gender, and culture.
Developing a Treatment Focus and Treatment Plan: Four obstacles to developing a treatment focus, building a conceptual map using theory and research, components of a treatment plan, and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment.
Basic Treatment Skills and Interventions – The rush to intervention versus developing a relationship, basic counselling skills, skills unique to the Systemic/Relational therapist, becoming more sophisticated in using interventions.
Working with Families and Children – Assessment of children and adolescents, emerging resources for treating children and adolescents, revisited family life cycle, variations, and family development.
Working with Older Adults and Their Caregivers – Assessment and treatment of older adults, family caregiving.
Working with Couples – Keys to providing solid couple therapy, special topics, when couple therapy might not work.
When a family Member Has a Mental Illness – Individual and family concepts, Depression, anxiety, alcoholism and drug abuse, impulsive disorders in neurodevelopmental disorders. – It is important to remember counsellors are not able to diagnose.
Getting Unstuck in Therapy – Understanding the client’s ambivalence about change, therapist-client agenda and timing mismatch, matching levels of directness to the client, therapists reluctance to intervene, therapist’s lack of conceptual clarity, change an acceptance, countertransference, how therapist issues interfere, dealing with cancellations and no shows, difficulty getting other family members to therapy, handling secrets, dealing with clients we dislike, how agencies contribute to being stuck, supervision, self-supervision questions, getting unstuck using research and literature.
Ethics in Counselling (30hrs.)
Course Outline:
Upon completion of this course, the student will have demonstrated the ability to:
- Recognize an ethical dilemma or issue in multiple counselling situations.
- Broaden awareness, through a process of reflection and exploration, of one’s own personal and professional values, as well as ethical positions, on a variety of issues;
- Know when and how to refer.
- The student will have a clear framework for the exploration of issues.
- Guidelines for defined boundaries and recognize boundary violations.
- Learn questioning processes to bring clarity to issues.
- Who to include in the ethical decision-making process.
- Where to go to access a deeper understanding of how to move towards a resolution of issues that serve the best interest of the client and counsellor.
- Be aware of the importance of sensitivity in applying ethical concepts and principles.
- Recognize the potential of and possibly prevent an ethical dilemma in specific situations in counselling practice.
- Understand the importance of being familiar with the ACCT’s current Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.
- Prepare students to develop and design a professional Informed Consent Form for a variety of counselling situations.
- Prepare students to address ethical issues related to suicidality and End of Life Decisions. Including:
- No suicide/no harm contract template, No suicide contract template.
- Augment the student’s professional identity as a counsellor;
- Reaffirm the importance of ongoing professional development.
- Advance an appreciation of supportive practices, including supervision and consultation.
- Stress, anxiety, depression, childhood trauma, trauma, relationship problems, making changes, and health issues, to name a few.
- Ethics of Social Media – impact on the counselling relationship.
Exams: Multiple Choice, Essay, submission of one video of an actual session.
