Lecture: 4 hours per week
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, video/DVDs, and guest lectures.
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
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.
Evaluation will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. Evaluation will be based on course objectives and include some of the following:
- Multiple choice, short answer or essay exams
- Term paper, research project or written assignments
- Taped demonstration of counselling skills
The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific evaluation at the beginning of the semester.
Students may conduct research with human participants as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving human subjects.
An example of a possible evaluation scheme is as follows:
Exams - 25%
Three video tapes of skill demonstrations and transcripts - 20%, 25%, 25%
Attendance - 5%
Total - 100%
Texts 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.