Graduate Counselling and Applied Psychology (GCAP) 643

Overview

GCAP 643: Health Psychology is designed as a broad introduction to the study of how human psychology and human health intersect. It will help students develop the skills to critically evaluate theories, findings, and methods relevant to the field of health psychology, while enhancing their practical counselling skills. This course will interest students wanting to extend their counselling competencies into health contexts and those who want to apply health psychology knowledge and skills to other professional contexts.

Outline

• Lesson 1: An Introduction to Health Psychology
• Lesson 2: Health Theories and Models
• Lesson 3: Stress and Coping
• Lesson 4: Health Psychology Interventions: Part I - Addictions: Smoking and Alcohol
• Lesson 5: Health Psychology Interventions: Part II - Eating Behaviours and Exercise
• Lesson 6: Health Psychology Interventions: Part III - Pain and Pain Management
• Lesson 7: The Psychology of Chronic Conditions: Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, and AIDS
• Lesson 8: Death, Dying, and Grief
• Lesson 9: Beyond the Biopsychosocial Model - A Holistic Approach
• Lesson 10: Strategies for Counselling Practice: Self-Talk, Breathwork, Meditation, Imagery, and Journal Writing
• Lesson 11: Hope and the Counselling Relationship
• Lesson 12: Research in Health Psychology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches
• Lesson 13: Applications of Health Psychology in the Field: Future Directions

Course Evaluation

To receive credit for GCAP 643, students must submit all of the course assignments. The passing grade for the course is B- (70%). The assessment structure for GCAP 643: Health Psychology is based on the following course activities, with the percentage weighting of each activity as indicated. Your final grade for the course will be a composite mark based in your performance on these course activities.