Graduate Counselling and Applied Psychology (GCAP) 635

Cognitive-behavioural therapies are distinguished by the assertion that cognitive activity is a key contributor to behaviour and emotion. These interventions aim to influence an individual's internal and external experience by altering the cognitions involved in that experience. This module reviews the assumptions and concepts of cognitive-behavioural therapy, and examines their application in the context of two major therapeutic models: Beck's Cognitive Therapy (CT) and Ellis's Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). Finally, applications of CT and REBT are illustrated using depression as an example.

Solution-focused therapy (SFT) is a strength-focused approach to counselling that challenges typical ways of viewing human functioning and human problems. Instead of thinking of counselling as solving problems or correcting deficits, SFT focused on what is going right. This module introduces students to the assumptions of the solution-focused approach and acquaints them with basic skills in questioning, intervention design, and adapting treatment to client response and readiness.

Working with clients who are suicidal can be one of the most stressful endeavours counsellors encounter in their professional career. This module will examine a variety of assessment and treatment issues and therapeutic tasks that are essential when working with suicidal individuals. Through the use of self-reflection exercises and discussions, the module will also provide the opportunity for students to examine their own values and attitudes towards suicide.

The Treating Stress-Related Problems module utilizes a contemporary view of stress to provide a framework for understanding the factors influencing people's experience of stress and how stress-related medical and psychological problems develop. It then presents a framework for planning stress control interventions with clients that has been systematically validated in a wide variety of field settings.

Narrative therapy is a postmodern approach to therapy that eschews pathologizing conceptualizations of human problems and questions taken-for-granted cultural ideas. This module will provide an introduction to the theory underlying narrative therapy and provide a skill platform for continuing practice development in narrative therapy.

The Social Justice Interventions module is designed to introduce students to the concept of social justice as an integral component of the the theory and practice of counselling psychology. Social justice is defined as a collaborative, action-oriented initiative aimed at eradicating the social inequities that adversely affect the well-being of individuals and groups, particular members of non-dominant populations. The module provides students with an opportunity to explore a range of social justice interventions, ranging from those targeting individual clients to broader systems level strategies.

This module introduces some strategies that can be employed when helping clients who misuse alcohol and drugs. These will include information about assessment, consideration of options for counselling interventions, and community supports. You will also be invited to examine your own beliefs about addiction, and how they can influence your work.

Brief dynamic psychotherapy (BDP) is an interpersonal approach to counselling that uses the relationship between client and therapist to facilitate changes in how clients relate to themselves and others. This is a competency-based approach that emphasizes relational factors, interpersonal pattern recognition, and relationship management as change agents in the therapeutic process.

The Child Art Therapy module focuses on how art therapy can be directed specifically to the needs and concerns of children. The purpose of the model is to develop competency in the use of art therapy with children. The experience of childhood is universal, yet extremely variable. The importance of using the art process in the communication of the inner world of children is central to art therapy.

The purpose of this module is to assist students in working creatively with this client population. Adolescence is a period in the life cycle that is dedicated to a number of tasks, including experimenting with new relationships and formulating new beliefs and worldviews. The issues that arise include the intrapsychic conflicts that simultaneously involve the need for a secure emotional base as well as the need to separate/individuate from the family. Developmental theorists hypothesize that adolescents are also faced with a lack of self-definition and the task of creating and shaping an identity; certain early life events and experiences may indicate further conflict that art therapists need to be aware of in order to meaningfully engage with adolescents.