The purpose of this course is to enhance students’ clinical competence and prepare them for clinical work in our program. In this course, students receive supervised clinical training, as they learn and practice various techniques and interventions in simulated counselling sessions, inside and outside the classroom.
To develop students’ clinical competence, various counselling and psychotherapy theories and models are reviewed in four major areas:
a) client-centered and relationally focused approaches;
b) cognitively and behaviorally based approaches;
c) emotionally and dynamically focused approaches; and
d) couples, families, and systems based approaches.
Within each major area, instruction and learning focuses on the following components:
a) underlying philosophical assumptions;
b) major concepts;
c) views on personality, human nature, and development;
d) case conceptualization;
e) therapeutic and change processes;
f) specific techniques, interventions, and expected outcomes;
g) social, cultural, and other diversity factors (such as, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, SES, class, religion, spirituality, disability, etc…); and
h) relevant clinical research. Through simulated counselling sessions, students learn to identify “critical moments” and make appropriate and professionally responsible responses.
In exploring the links between theory and practice, students examine the similarities and differences among the different approaches as well as the common factors across counselling and psychotherapy theories and models, and employ them in case conceptualization assignments.
Prerequisites: CNPS 362 and CNPS 365
Credits: 6