CN6100 Directive Therapies: Theory and Practice
Unit Description
Pre-requisites
CN5100
CN5200
Co-requisites
CN6200
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:
Apply directive therapies to diverse client circumstances and needs
Identify issues of personal and cultural difference in the therapeutic relationship when planning treatment with directive therapies
Explain directive therapy theories in light of philosophical and theological understandings of development, personhood, wellness and change
Compare key directive therapy theories and practices
Unit Description
The approaches to psychotherapy and counselling introduced in this unit have been grouped under the title “directive therapies” because they are therapeutic theories that emphasise the special knowledge and expertise of practitioners and encourage clients to be guided by this knowledge and expertise. Students in this unit will discover the basic principles and philosophies underlying directive therapies as well as their way of approaching such topics as cognitive and social development, abnormal psychology and theories of change.
The unit covers theory and practice in a range of historically important and highly influential therapies including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, ACT, Family Systems Therapy and Positive Psychology.
This unit must be taken in conjunction with CN6200 Directive Counselling Skills which directly augments the content of this unit through extensive practice activities and skill development exercises so that students can apply what they are learning to their own counselling practice.
Topics
- Introduction and a brief history of therapeutic theories (the break from Freud and Psychoanalysis)
- Cognitive and social development in medical psychology
- Medical Therapies - theoretical principles
- Systemic Therapies - theoretical principles
- The therapist’s role in directive therapies
- Psychiatry and the disease model
- Behaviourism and Cognitive-Behaviourism - first, second and third wave CBT
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
- Positive Psychology
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Murray Bowen and Family Systems Therapy
- Attachment Theory in therapy
Unit offerings
Face to face: (Demand based)Please note
The Unit Offerings listed above are a guide only and the timetable for any year is the final authority. The College may vary offerings based on demand, regulatory requirements, continual improvement processes or other conditions.
This unit may be available in different modes of delivery i.e. online and face-to-face as listed above. The unit content will not differ between these modes of delivery. There will possibly be a difference in the schedule and/or the prescribed assessment tasks, however both will cover and assess the same content.