Therapeutic Person-Centred Counselling(Level 5)

COURSE OVERVIEW

The Level 5 Diploma in Therapeutic Person-Centred Counselling course is divided into sixteen comprehensive units:

Unit 1: Using information, communication and technology ICT in Therapeutic Person-Centred Counselling

Information, communication and technology (ICT) comprises core skills for learning. In this distance learning course utilisation of methods, tools and strategies of ICT is important in order to establish and maintain a sound working relationship with tutors and the college. In this first unit students are presented with tools and strategies with which to begin to undertake independent research and integrate this into coursework activities, for example suggesting ways to read research articles and assimilate types of information from these.

Unit 2: Introduction to counselling part 1
In this next unit on the Counselling course we will be looking at the general approaches and applications in counselling.

The counsellor is neither a friend or parent substitute, therefore is not in a position to act as advisor or teacher. Counsellors should also avoid being seen as a healer or mentor. These guidelines are quite difficult to adhere to as it is easy to get drawn into an overly personal conversation or relationship, especially if the client visits regularly. However, this is not the role of the counsellor and will inevitably jeopardise the client-counsellor professional relationship.

Counselling developed from theories and practices of psychology and psychiatry. This unit looks at some of the more well known people and theories, and show how these developed into the counselling approaches used today.

Unit 3: Introduction to counselling part 2

The psychodynamic approach (or model) refers to the action, changes or what is going on in the mind, which influences everything we do in life.

The basis of the theory as previously discussed, is that an individual’s personality and consequent behaviour are based on, and influenced by the Id, Ego and Superego (first identified and theorized by feud).

Unit 4: Child counselling
Dealing with children and adolescents in the therapeutic environment requires special counselling skills and strategies. Children are often not prepared to communicate freely and this could be due to a number of factors such as shyness, fear of the unknown, loyalty, lack of confidence, lack of expressive vocabulary etc.

In child counselling, transference has occurred when the child behaves towards the counsellor as though they were their mother or father. This happens because the child is convinced that the counsellor has similar attributes to their parent/parents and therefore projects beliefs onto them. This transference can be either positive or negative depending on how the child views the counsellor and what characteristics appear similar.

Unit 5: Relationship counselling
Clients may seek relationship counselling with varied knowledge and perceptions of what it exactly entails including format and expectations. There may also be disparity in the willingness of clients to participate.

Resolution strategies for couples that display splitting and projection tendencies are mainly focused around encouragement of the breakdown of ego-syntonic situations, in other words help the clients to view the extreme life patterns as a creation of the relationship problems; they need to recognize that it is acceptable to have mixed, different and even opposing feelings about things than their respective partners. This unit explores the related theories and models and explains strategy development in different relationship scenarios.

Unit 6: Family counselling

Family systems are unique socially structured units which have numerous avenues of membership and combinations of components. Within families there are definitive roles to be fulfilled by each member

When individuals ‘differentiate’ from the family origins, problems associated with this new and independent life can cause problems such as various psychological disorders, addictive behaviour, poor career prospects and even crime.

Unit 7: Bereavement counselling part 1

Bereavement brings unexpected inner feelings, and even if death of a loved one was expected or planned as in assisted suicide, these emotions will still be unpredictable. It is impossible to predict or anticipate individual response to loss, or the time it will take to go through the grieving process. In some cases it may never be complete.

During this unit, the grieving process will be examined in some detail, and in addition to this, specific circumstances of loss will be covered. However, for the counsellor, skills, experience and theoretical knowledge can only be a small preparation for the enormity of sadness and emotional tragedy that may be expressed by bereaved clients during therapy sessions. Transference of the sense of loss and depth of emotion may occasionally occur, and even cause anxiety about personal mortality. This is something to be aware of when undertaking bereavement counselling.

Unit 8: Bereavement counselling part 2

• Suicide
• Bereavement through war, terrorism or violence

Unit 9: Addiction counselling part 1

The term ‘addiction’ is useful but needs clarification between what is positive or beneficial addiction and what is negative and harmful addiction. There are currently two definitions: the traditional which means being completely ‘given over’ to an activity and can refer to anything from love to gambling; the definition has never been solely associated with drug or alcohol abuse. The second definition of ‘restrictive’ addiction emerged during the 19 th century in response to the temperance movements. It has no scientific basis but describes those who are in the grips of harmful substances with associated levels of tolerance and withdrawal.

This unit presents anatomy and physiology relevant to addiction and addictive processes and explores the counselling remits within this field of work.

Unit 10: Addiction counselling part 2

This unit continues to look at addiction how to counsel those with alcohol addiction and discusses some of the traditional methods used such The Cycle of Change and The Twelve Step Approach.

The unit draws further comparisons between approaches and outcomes, and looks at the tools available within the counselling skills remit to address possible problems. For example, if the client is having withdrawal symptoms they may already be on medication. If they are not then the counsellor should advise them to seek appropriate medical help or refer them directly.

Unit 11: Addiction counselling part 3

The unit explores these kinds of diverse addiction as well as other less known ones and presents suggestions for counselling approaches and strategy development.

Unit 12: Debt counselling

People can get themselves into debt for a multitude of reasons: overspending, loss of employment, divorce or bereavement, change in personal circumstances etc. In many instances the debt is unforeseen and to a certain degree, out of the individual’s control. Of course, overspending can be described as free will or personal choice; spending money that you don’t have, or cannot easily pay back is a conscious decision. However, sometimes these decisions are based upon sound economic assumptions and then something unavoidable occurs to negate them.

Unit 13: Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT is specific to the problems within and concerning the individuals life therefore it should be stressed that other problems outside this context cannot be dealt with at the same time. Of course there should be flexibility and common sense applied to each individual case.

The therapist should make an assessment of the client situation prior to commencement of sessions. Their problems and requirements should be included within this assessment, and it may well be that this process takes the form of the first session depending upon individual working practices.

Unit 14: CBT: Interventions allied to techniques and individual problems

The relationship between beliefs, thoughts and behaviour is central to the accurate understanding of emotional problems within a CBT situation, not least because the way we behave is a product of our experiences. These behaviour patterns are then reinforced, especially is our experiences act as the reinforcer.

Unit 15: CBT: Internal and external contributing factors

Researchers believe that personality may play a role in the development of an anxiety disorder, noting that people who have low self-esteem and poor coping skills may be more prone. Conversely, an anxiety disorder that begins in childhood may itself contribute to the development of low self-esteem. This could therefore be viewed as a cyclical process or mechanism. Those who live with high levels of anxiety will tend to focus solely on their symptoms of anxiety or negative stimulus, often looking for negative stimulus that is not there, or perceiving situations out of context.

Researchers believe that the relationship between anxiety disorders and long-term exposure to abuse, violence, or poverty is an important research area and these exposures may directly contribute to raised anxiety levels, and an individual's susceptibility to these disorders.

Unit 16: CBT: The intervention approaches

If one accepts that maladaptive behaviour patterns (due to irrational thoughts or beliefs) are the result of previous reinforcement of some kind, then the behaviour is a conditioned one. Therefore these patterns should be able to be reversed by using the same processes, in other words by using reinforcers or conditioning. The following are some interventions which are used in the reversal process:

- Increased expectancies through observational learning.
- Self-instruction to alter expectancies and outcomes.
- Recognition of maladaptive thoughts and beliefs, and adjustments.
- Rejection of negativity.
- Confronting stressors.
- Relaxation and focusing exercises.