Lecture: 2 hours/week
and
Lab: 2 hours/week
In this course, students engage in a variety of learning activities such as lecture, instructor demonstration, practice simulations, discussion, group work, case studies and presentations.
• Foundations of interviewing and counselling in social work practice
• Self-awareness, social location, and the use of self in professional relationships
• Core communication and responding skills for effective engagement
• Strengths-based and empowerment-oriented counselling approaches
• Relationship building, goal setting, and collaborative problem solving
• Culturally responsive and anti-oppressive interviewing and counselling practice
• Indigenous-informed and narrative approaches to relationship-based practice
• Critical examination of colonial and Euro-Western assumptions in counselling relationships
• Ethical decision-making in counselling, including tensions between professional codes, workplace expectations, and client interests
• Linking individual experiences to broader systems of oppression, wellbeing, and social conditions
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate self-awareness in relation to their own social locations, identities, assumptions and how these may influence their interactions with clients;
- Analyze and address colonial narratives and the implications of the dominant Euro-Western worldview, as embedded in the counselling relationship;
- Identify and address the historical and ongoing prejudices and violence experienced by Indigenous people, and how this impacts experiences with counselling;
- Use Indigenous story-based approaches in interviewing practice;
- Describe how individual challenges and experiences of counselling are related to larger issues of oppression, particularly for members of equity-deserving groups;
- Examine the connection between environmental sustainability, social indicators of health, and individual well-being;
- Demonstrate knowledge of basic communication and responding skills and the elements of a strengths-based approach to promote the empowerment of people;
- Assess potential contradictions between formal codes of ethics, employment responsibilities, and the best interests of the client.
Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in a course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline. This is a letter-graded course.
Typical means of assessment include the following:
- Written papers
- Presentations
- Projects
- Exams
- Participation
- Attendance
Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.
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