| CODE | COU5134 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Counselling Skills: An Introduction | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Counselling | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit is an introduction to basic counselling skills for trainee counsellors. This study-unit aims to provide trainee counsellors with an understanding of the counselling process by helping them to develop basic counselling skills, conceptualisation skills, and an opportunity to further develop their self-awareness. Learning will take place through a combination of didactic instruction, in-class discussions and observations; and in-class and out-of-class practice. Students will be required to engage in peer-to-peer video-recorded role-plays, which will be utilised in and out of class, for skill evaluation and development. The main focus of this study-unit will be on establishing, developing, maintaining and evaluating a therapeutic relationship from a person-centred approach. Specific skills covered in this unit will include: attending, listening, paraphrasing, summarising, formulation of questions, and empathic responding. Individual attention will be given to basic skill acquisition, development and application. Specific attention will also be placed on trainees’ abilities to develop an awareness of their personal strengths, areas of growth, values, and biases that may potentially impact on the counselling process. Trainees will be expected to actively participate in all aspects of the learning process in order to develop their ability to evaluate and reflect upon their own and others’ counselling skills. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Describe the person-centred counselling skills necessary to establish a therapeutic relationship; - Identify personal values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that may potentially impact on the counselling process; - Conceptualise the counselling process. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate increasing proficiency in person-centred counselling; - Demonstrate a commitment to increased awareness of personal strengths, areas of growth, values, and biases that have an impact on the counselling process; - Evaluate and reflect upon their own counselling skills identifying areas for improvement and growth; - Evaluate and provide constructive feedback to peers on their counselling skills; - Conduct their first counselling sessions through role play. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Required Text: - Egan, G. (2018). The skilled helper: A client-centred approach. Cengage Learning EMEA. Recommended Texts: - McLeod, J . (2019 ). An Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy. Open University Press. - Mearns, D., Thorne, B., & McLeod, J. (2013). Person-Centred Counselling in Action. 4th ed. SAGE. - Midwinter, R., & Dickson, J. (2015). Embedding counselling and communication skills: a relational skills model. Routledge. - Nelson-Jones, R. (2015). Basic Counselling Skills: A Helper′ s Manual. Sage. - Stafford, M. R., & Bond, T. (2020). Counselling Skills in Action. SAGE. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Students are expected to attend to and actively participate in all the lectures and prepare themselves by completing assigned tasks and/or readings. | ||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Melanie Demarco |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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