This course is designed for professionals who wish to acquire counselling skills for use in their work as health professionals, social workers, personnel officers, pastors, human service workers, psychologists or counsellors.
The course provides training in counselling skills and theory, and prepares graduates to develop a counselling role in the setting in which they work.
Course Learning Outcomes
- Critique and examine complex clinical material; deduce, distinguish and apply relevant theoretical concepts; formulate, implement and evaluate according to the process and practice of counselling and psychotherapy
- Demonstrate advanced foundation knowledge of various psychodynamic and systemic couples and family therapy theoretical frameworks
- Demonstrate currency with the theory of psychoanalytic technique as it pertains to individual counselling, including applied knowledge of the concepts transference and counter transference.
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of ethical frameworks for counselling
- Employ principles of systemic theory as a framework for observing and conceptualizing different dimensions of family functioning
- Investigate, analyze and synthesize complex information, problems, concepts and theories in counselling and psychotherapy Demonstrate competency in individual psychodynamic counselling
- Review the developmental stages of the human life cycle from object relations and attachment theory perspectives
- Synthesise key principles and processes identified with of psychoanalytically informed, cross-generational, and emotionally focussed approaches to couple and family therapy practice
- Those that complete the COU5210 elective should be able to: Demonstrate an awareness of counter transference including a capacity to employ it meaningfully in a psychotherapeutic context
- Those that complete the COU6121 elective should be able to: Demonstrate advanced foundation knowledge of various individual psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy theoretical frameworks
Career opportunities
Students completing this offering will be eligible for entry level counselling roles in human and social services, NGOs and the like.
Possible future job titles
Counsellor, Psychotherapist, Human Services Officer, Community/Welfare Worker, Youth Worker, Case Worker