Counselling Psychology

Semester and Year Offered: Semester 5

Course Coordinator and Team: Shifa Haq / Vatsala Saxena

Email of course coordinator: shifahaq[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in / vatsala[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites: Students who have passed IV Semester and done History of Psychology

Course Objectives/Description:

This elective course concerns to use psychological principles to help in bringing positive growth and well being in people. The course will teach aspects of counseling process beginning with a first contact with a client to the point of termination of the counseling relationship. The emergence of Counseling as a distinct profession characterized by its role statements, code of ethics, licensure and other standards of excellence will be familiarized to students for better understanding into becoming effective counselors. Skills of listening, communicating and connecting with client and others in general will be taught in experiential workshop mode facilitating students in various role-plays. Few selected contemporary approaches to counseling like psychodynamic, client centered, and cognitive behavior counseling etc. will be discussed and demonstrate engaging in a therapeutic relationship based on benevolence, trustworthiness and authenticity through narratives from real life cases

Course Outcomes:

1. On successful completion of this course students will be able to:
2. Have a comprehensive understanding of the profession of counselling, in different practical contexts.
3. Have a comprehensive theoretical understanding of major counselling paradigms, namely: Psychoanalysis, Humanistic and existentialism, cognitive behaviour therapy, behavioural therapy, and family /group therapy.
4. Acquire basic counselling skills of case conceptualization, Socratic questioning and listening with empathy.
5. Demonstrate specific cognitive-behavioural techniques (cognitive continuum, monitoring activity chart, conducting role plays etc), techniques from Client- centered approach as well as Psychoanalytic counselling to help potential clients.
6. Help clients having mild concerns in life; for instance acting as peer counsellors in the college/community.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

1. Becoming a counselor

This module will highlight and discuss core elements of counseling such as the desire to help, how to is cultivate deep listening, counseling training, licensing, fields of counseling and choosing one’s field, approach and style of counseling work etc. What it takes to become a counselor will be the focus of this module. Students will also be briefed about the ethical issues vis-à-vis counseling with reference to India.

2. Understanding the counseling process

This module will look into the differences and similarities in counseling and other modes of guiding or helping people. Students will be taken through the journey of counseling process beginning with the first interaction with a client, getting started, working alliances, progressing through counseling and termination.

3. Connecting with clients or people in need of help

In this module, students will be taught how to actively listen to other’s problems and understand their core issues leading to those problems. An attempt will be made to establish basic essential skills of counseling such as, listening, communicating and empathizing in the classroom setting. Other variables of counseling such as, transference, counter-transference, using interventions and understanding resistance in the counseling situation will also be discussed.

4. Psychodynamic Counseling

This module focuses on the Psychodynamic understanding of emotional conflicts, the past experiences and unconscious motives of a person that affects her/his present life situation. The importance and significance of interpersonal client/therapist relationship including non-verbal relatingwill be highlighted too. Various techniques used in psychodynamic approach counseling will be demonstrated through clinical cases as well.

5. Client Centered Counseling

This approach will emphasize a non-directive way of helping clients in coping with their emotional and psychological distresses with the notion of human as continuously striving for positive self growth.

6. Cognitive Behavior approach to Counseling

The focus of this approach will be on here and now problems of individuals in specific situations and systematic adoption ofa problem focused approach towards treatment. It is based on the principle that behavior is the consequence of one’s thought processes and attempts are made to change thoughts in order to bring positive changes in the manifested behavior.

7. Counseling Groups and Families

Some of the major aspects of counseling different groups and families will be taught in this module. Various issues faced by children in general, how they are helped through counseling process in the family setting will also be integrated.

Assessment Details with weights:

Reading List:

• Gladding S.T. (2012). Counseling: A Comprehensive Profession. New Jersey: Prentice HallPublishiers.
• Belkin, G.S. (1988). Introduction to Counseling.Virginia: WC Brown Company Publishers

• Beck,J.S (2011). Cognitive Behavior Therapy : Basics and Beyond (2nd edition) . Guilford Press.
• Rogers, C.R ( 1951). Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory. Houghton Mifflin Company • Boston

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE:

• The course will use case studies from on-going clinical cases documented by the case instructor.
• You tube videos of the ongoing therapy sessions.