Module: The Skills & Practice of Counselling & Psychotherapy

Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title	The Skills & Practice of Counselling & Psychotherapy
Module Code	NS5027 (ITS) / PST1011 (Banner)
Faculty	Science & Health	School	Nursing, PsyT & Comm Health
Module Co-ordinator	-
Module Teachers	-
NFQ level	9	Credit Rating	7.5
Pre-requisite	Not Available
Co-requisite	Not Available
Compatibles	Not Available
Incompatibles	Not Available

None
No resit opportunity

Description

The purpose of this module is to facilitate students in developing the competencies that underpin the effective and professional practice of counselling and psychotherapy within the Irish context. Participants will develop skills in assessing their own, and potential client’s suitability for psychotherapy within a broader context of the client’s overall healthcare. Through a combination of reading, in class discussion, and extensive experiential practice of being psychotherapist to one of their peers, participants start to hone and fine-tune their ability to establish a productive therapeutic relationship and to integrate theories and practice from the systemic, and cognitive behavioural traditions, exploring how to integrate these approaches with the Programme’s Integrative (Humanistic and Psychosynthesis) tradition. Ethical, social, and legal issues pertaining to the practice of psychotherapy will also be taught, and students will be prepared for entering into a professional Supervisory relationship.

Learning Outcomes

1. Assess their own and potential client’s suitability for psychotherapy, drawing on a holistic understanding of the client (including factors such as background and culture) within the overall context of healthcare services in Ireland.
2. Create a therapeutic alliance with clients, based on a basic level of mutual trust, through the clarification of mutual expectations, and the agreement on ground rules for the relationship
3. Strengthen the therapeutic alliance through the practical application of appropriate levels of specific competencies within a professional, ethical, and legal framework
4. Integrate a number of theoretical orientations and associated approaches, mainly those of Integrative (Humanistic and Psychosynthesis), and also incorporating elements of Cognitive-Behavioural and Systemic.
5. Demonstrate their personal integration of theory and skills into practice with the personal development necessary for the personal readiness to practice.
6. Demonstrate specific skills associated with systemic and cognitive-behavioural models of counselling and psychotherapy, use these skills appropriately within the context of therapy, and explain the rationale for a particular therapeutic method with sensitivity and due regard to the individual needs and characteristics of a client
7. Establish and participate meaningfully in a clinical Supervisory relationship that is of benefit both to themselves and to their clients.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full-time hours per semester
Lecture	62	Supervised skills practice. Students, in small groups of 8 - 10, practice in simulated role-plays and real-life experiential practice under the supervision of a Professional Tutor. Students learn from a combination of their own experience, feedback from the Tutor, and observation of their peers.
Seminars	40	Students will attend a series of lectures/seminars, where they will be expected to attend to didactic presentations and participate in class discussions based on the readings assigned
Group work	17.5	In small groups of 8/9, students share their own personal process with their peers under the guidance of a Professional group facilitator.
Independent Study	8	Students gather in groups of four to discuss material arising out of class lectures
Assignment Completion	15	Details provided in class
Directed learning	15	Self reflection /journaling: Students reflect on their own personal process, including personal issues that arise for them, and record same in a journal
Independent Study	30	Sourcing books and articles from reading list and reading in-depth (including note-taking where appropriate) in preparation for participation for participation in class dialogue.
Total Workload: 187.5

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Assessing Own and Client’s Suitability for Psychotherapy
In this section, students will learn to consider their own and a client’s overall suitability for psychotherapy, taking into account presenting problems, factors such as the client’s social and cultural context, supports and overall desire for personal growth. Participants will learn to consider psychotherapy within the context of other healthcare services available in Ireland. This section also prepares students for establishing and maintaining a beneficial Supervisory relationship where they can discuss such issues.

Cognitive-Behavioural Approaches to Psychotherapy
Cognitive-behavioural approaches to psychotherapy are explored in this section. The basic cognitive-behavioural perspective is compared with other main theoretical approaches. Participants learn about some of the main techniques used in cognitive-behavioural therapy.

The Systemic Perspective
In this section students learn how to take a systems perspective when working with clients in a therapeutic setting. The importance of context, including culture, family of origin, work/organizational and other such systems that intersect with individual lives is stressed. Participants will familiarize themselves with some of the tools employed by Systemic practitioners, including the family Genogram and family sculpting.

Skills Practice
Practising in small groups, where students practise as psychotherapist for one of their peers, and with guidance, observation and feedback from professional tutors (one per group of 8/9 students), and feedback from peers, participants develop a host of ‘level 2’ skills for conducting an effective psychotherapy session for a range of client issues. Particular attention is paid to integrating several theoretical orientations listed above, with a primary emphasis on Integrative (Humanistic and Psychosynthesis), and also including elements of Cognitive-Behavioural, and Systems theory, and being able to utilize and justify the rationale for approaches associated with each perspective

Self-Awareness and Development as a Psychotherapist
This subject is integrated throughout the module, as participants learn to appreciate how crucial their own personal process of deep self-understanding and growth is to the therapeutic process. Participants learn how to self-reflect, recognize their own strengths and blocks contributing to the therapeutic process, and begin their own personal journey of integration, transformation, and growth. Personal Readiness of the psychotherapist is emphasized

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	0%	Examination Weight	0%

Type	Description	% of total
Course Work Breakdown
Participation	Live Session and Viva. Details provided in class	65%
Participation	Personal and Professional Readiness & Portfolio.Programme tutors, who have observed each students progress throughout the year, assess each students own ‘Personal Readiness’ to practice according to a specified set of criteria	25%
Assignment	details provised in class	10%

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories: Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module. Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module. Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category -

Indicative Reading List

Bond, T.: 2009, Standards and ethics for counselling in action, 3rd ed., Sage, London, 978-0761963097
Bowlby, J.: 2005, The making and breaking of affectional bonds, 2nd edition, Routledge;, London, 978-0415354813
Dryden, W., Spurling, L.: 1989, On becoming a psychotherapist, Tavistock/Routledge, London, 978-0415036115
Hawkins, P. , Shohet, R.: 2012, Supervision In The Helping Professions (Supervision in Context), 4th Ed., Open University Press;, London, 0335243118
McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R., Petry, S.: 2008, Genograms, 3rd, Norton & Co., New York, 0393705099
Sills, C. (Editor): 2006, Contracts in Counselling & Psychotherapy, 2nd Edition, Sage, London, 1412920663
Trower, P., Casey, A., Dryden,W.: 1988, Cognitive-behavioural counselling in action, Sage, London, 0803980485
Bass, E., Davis, L.: 2008, The Courage to Heal 4e, 4th Edition, Harper Collins, New York, 0061284335
Bowlby,J.: 1982, Attachment and loss, Basic Books, New York, 978-0465042388
Mearns, D.: 2003, Developing person-centred counselling, 2nd, SAGE, London, 0761949682
Nelson-Jones, R.: 2000, Six key approaches to counselling and therapy, Continuum Publishing Group, London, 978-0826449696
Parks, P.: 1994, Rescuing the Inner Child: Therapy for Adults Sexually Abused as Children, Souvenir Press, London, 978-0285650893
Perls,F. S., Hefferline, R. F., Goodman,P.: 1994, Gestalt therapy, Souvenir Press, London, 978-0285626652
Worden, J. W.: 2009, Grief counseling and grief therapy, 4th Edition, Springer Pub. Co., New York, NY, 978-0826101204

Other Resources

23269, website/booklet, IACP, 0, Code of Ethics and Practice for Counsellors, http://www.irish-counselling.ie, 23270, website/booklet, IAHIP, ICP, EAIPP, EAP, 0, Code of Ethics and Practice for Psychotherapists,