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Overview

PPC4007 Advanced Counselling Skills builds on PPC4003 Counselling Skills to provide you with further support in developing as a counsellor. This module aims to enhance your understanding of risk, diversity, and inclusivity to enrich your practice with clients and your work more generally in a mental health context. You will attend lectures from a range of speakers who will provide insights into working with different client populations and you will apply the knowledge gained from these lectures in your practical skills classes. Within these classes, you will work in small groups to run mock-counselling sessions: one speaker will share their thoughts in the role of client, one listener will demonstrate skills in the role of counsellor, and remaining observers will provide feedback on skills. These sessions provide a forum in which to develop more advanced counselling skills. This important activity gives you a valuable opportunity to practice your counselling skills as you begin working with real clients and try out new techniques or approaches within the relative safety of this mock-counselling setting. The continual development of these skills is an essential part of your development as a counsellor and the deeper insight gained through this module will enhance your practice and deepen your understanding of counselling. You will be assessed on this module through a reflective journal and an annotated transcript of a recorded counselling session.

PPC4007 Advanced Counselling Skills will provide you further development of your counselling skills for in-person and remote therapy. One of the greatest challenges in counselling is adapting to the needs of the client in the room. It can be difficult to predict these needs until you are working with that individual, and flexibility is key to success as a therapist. Understanding and being sensitive to diversity and difference is critical for working with a wide range of client cohorts and essential for driving social change towards acceptance of all people. You will learn to adopt the professional role and responsibilities of a therapist to demonstrate autonomy and accountability by working with a client within a therapeutic framework. You will gain a deeper understanding of managing risk, particularly in cases of suicidal ideation and self-harming behaviour, and an appreciation of diversity issues. You will reflect on your own process in an assessed journal and be encouraged to question your own assumptions, biases, and blindspots. Alongside lectures to help you understand these key topics, you will also apply your knowledge in practice through practical skills sessions culminating in a final assessed session with an assigned client. This important activity gives you a valuable opportunity to demonstrate your growing counselling skills and reflect further on the development of your therapeutic philosophy.

Topics covered in this module include: 1. Reflective Practice (Reflecting on Therapeutic Skills) 2. Diversity and Difference (Recognition, Awareness, and Acceptance) 3. Guided Discovery (Inclusive Guided Discovery in Action) 4. Using the CTRS in Integrative and Inclusive Practice (Practising with the CTRS) 5. Working with Older Adults (Counselling in Later Life) 6. Working with Young People (Counselling for Adolescents)
7. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Working with Difference) 8. Religion and Spirituality (Respect from a Place of Similarity and Difference) 9. Core Approaches and Therapies (Integration in Practice) 10. Self in the Therapeutic Philosophy (Self as a Practitioner) 11. Therapeutic Writing (Writing for Wellbeing)

Please note that these topics are subject to change dependent on staff availability, unexpected circumstances, and the assessed needs of the students.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment criteria for this module is as follows:

Excellent (A*, A+, A, A-) •Honest and insightful reflection resulting in positive development of counselling skills (safe practice) •Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of counselling skills •Insightful and deep reflective awareness of issues of diversity and difference •Detailed understanding with no factual errors •Critical analysis showing evaluation and synthesis of ideas •Novel and innovative originality in approach, interpretation, and voice •Extensive and comprehensive independent research •Logically defended arguments with evidence for all claims •Highly focused and well structured •Excellent presentation with accurate and appropriate expression •Correct format in appropriate referencing style

Good (B+, B, B-) •Honest and considered reflection resulting in positive development of counselling skills (safe practice) •Strong knowledge of counselling skills •Deep reflective awareness of issues of diversity and difference •Clear understanding and mostly free of factual errors •Some analysis showing critical evaluation and links between ideas •Novel originality in approach, interpretation, and voice •Considerable independent research from appropriate sources •Coherent arguments with evidence for most claims •Focused and well structured •Clear presentation with accurate and appropriate expression •Mostly correct format in appropriate referencing style

Threshold (C+, C, C-) •Honest reflection resulting in some positive development of counselling skills (safe practice) •Some knowledge of counselling skills •Some reflective awareness of issues of diversity and difference •Understanding of the main concepts with no major factual errors •Basic analysis showing obvious points of evaluation and links between ideas •Some originality in approach, interpretation, and/or voice for part of the work •Some independent research from appropriate sources •Arguments presented with evidence for the most important claims •Readable structure showing focus at times •Acceptable presentation with appropriate expression •Attempt at correct format in appropriate referencing style with no major errors

If you do not meet the threshold, then your work will be graded as a Fail. Fail grades vary from Poor (D+, D, D-, E+, E, E-) to Very Poor (F).

Learning Outcomes

• Analyse own counselling skills of with honest critique and insight into the generation of reflective professional development action plans.

• Apply a theoretical orientation in practice with appropriate critical flexibility.

• Generate and maintain the therapeutic framework through the therapeutic process with critical appreciation of difference and diversity.

• Metacognitively reflect on own role and manage interactions one-to-one and in a group, with considered awareness of diversity and difference