CN6700 Counselling for Crisis, Trauma and Loss
Unit Description
Pre-requisites
CN6300 Ethical and Professional Practice
Co-requisites
None.Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:
Explain how oppressive power relations and social norms contribute to trauma and ways to address this in counselling from a Christian standpoint
Compare diverse counselling approaches to grief and trauma and identify possible effects of grief and trauma
Examine the effects of crisis, trauma or loss in own life, and examine personal responses, including from a theological perspective.
Demonstrate skills in supporting persons experiencing grief or crisis and assisting them to make meaning of their experience
Unit Description
This unit considers the far-reaching effects of trauma and loss in people’s lives and provides a foundation for “trauma-informed” approaches to clinical practice.
Students will engage with ways of supporting clients in the midst of crisis as well as in the immediate and longterm aftermath of crisis. Issues around family and sexual violence are also given particular attention here along with an examination of the power structures that contribute to such violence. A variety of theories and approaches to trauma are considered with a focus on person-centred care that does not re-traumatise.
Grief counselling - including not only grief over the loss of a loved one but also a variety of other experiences of grief - is also addressed from multiple theoretical viewpoints with a special emphasis on meaning-making through grief.
Topics
- What does “trauma” mean?
- The effects of trauma
- Trauma, power, and oppression
- “Incident Trauma” vs. “Complex Trauma”
- Family violence and sexual violence - special considerations
- Jesus’ response to oppressed and traumatised people
- Post-traumatic Stress Disorders and the medicalisation of responses to trauma
- Safe therapeutic practises for working with the effects of trauma
- Crisis debriefing
- Helping clients in crisis stay safe
- Responding to loss and grief
- Authoring stories of hope in the midst of despair
Assessment and Indicative Load
Assessment types include Reflection Paper, Case Study, Supervised Exam, and Attendance. Indicative study load is 150 hours.
Unit offerings
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.