Counselling Skills Fundamentals
Overview
1.The helping relationship
- The components of an effective helping relationship
- Values that drive the helping relationship
- Professional ethics/code of ethics
- Diversity as part of client/counsellor interactions
2. The helping process
- Clarifying the key issues
- Engaging the other
- Overcoming reluctance and resistance
3. Communication skills in the therapeutic dialogue
- Non verbal behaviour
- Active listening
- Empathic listening and responding
- Basic and advanced empathic listening and responding
- Probing and summarizing
- Challenging client assumptions and moving to new perspectives
Lecture and skills demonstration/practice of specific counselling skills will be the primary methods of instruction.
The course may also involve other methods of instructions such as small group activities, group discussion, computer simulations, digital recordings, and guest lectures.
Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. Evaluation will include some of the following:
Exams - 25%
Three video recordings of skill demonstrations and transcripts - 20%, 25%, 25%=70% (No recording should be assigned less than 15% or more than 30%).
To attain a passing grade in this course, students must demonstrate professional conduct and complete all recording assignments within the semester and as outlined in the course syllabus. To attain a passing grade, students must also demonstrate counselling skills by successfully completing at least 80% of in-class counselling practice sessions.
Attendance - 5%
Total - 100%
Upon completion of this course, the successful student should be able to:
- Delineate the key elements of successful helping.
- Analyze personal values that could impact the helping relationship.
- Outline ethical principles that guide helping relationships.
- Explain how stereotyping and being judgmental hinders helping.
- Demonstrate how to clarify key issues.
- Explain how reluctance and resistance operate in helping relationships.
- Demonstrate attending skills.
- Demonstrate active listening skills.
- Demonstrate basic and advanced empathic listening and responding skills.
- Demonstrate the skill of probing.
- Demonstrate the skill of summarizing.
- Demonstrate the skill of challenging client assumptions.
Textbooks will be updated periodically. A typical example of a text is:
Egan, G. and Reese, R.J. (2019). The skilled helper: A problem-management and opportunity-development approach to helping. (11th ed.) Boston: Cengage.
Requisites
Course Guidelines
Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.
Course Transfers
These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca
| Institution | Transfer details for PSYC 4370 |
|---|---|
| Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) | No credit |
| Langara College (LANG) | LANG PSYC 2XXX (3) |
| Simon Fraser University (SFU) | SFU EDUC 423 (3) |
| Thompson Rivers University (TRU) | TRU PSYC 4XXX (3) |
| Trinity Western University (TWU) | TWU PSYC 340 (3) |
| University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) | UBCO PSYO_O 2nd (3) |
| University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) | UBCV CNPS_V 362 (3) |
| University of Northern BC (UNBC) | UNBC PSYC 4XX (3) |
| University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) | UFV HSER 200 (3) or UFV PSYC 491S (3) |
| University of Victoria (UVIC) | UVIC ED-D 4XX (1.5) |
| Vancouver Community College (VCC) | VCC PSYC 2XXX (3) |
| Vancouver Community College (VCC) | No credit |
Course Offerings
Summer 2025
| CRN | Days | Instructor | Status | More details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
CRN
23671
|
Tue | Instructor last name
Atwal
Instructor first name
Sandeep
|
Course status
Waitlist
|