Pre-requisites

None.

Co-requisites

Should be taken after or concurrent with CN8100 Basic Counselling Skills and CN8200 Counselling for Common Issues

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:

• Defend different theories of the counsellor’s role from a personal and theological perspective

• Assess own values, motivations, assets and vulnerabilities in the counselling role drawing on contemplative practices and the experiences of established practitioners

• Synthesise conceptualisations of burnout and other occupational hazards with own style, beliefs or habits and formulate a plan for self-care

• Map principles of self-reflection and development to the therapist/client relationship

Unit Description

This introductory unit dives deep into what it means to be a counsellor and the joys and hazards such a vocation entails. Different theories about the role and identity of the counsellor or therapist are explored and students are given the chance to reflect on their own motivations or sense of calling into the counselling profession.

Because caring for people in pain can be a surprisingly fraught and even hazardous affair, this unit dedicates significant time to unpacking not only the dangers of problems like burnout, vicarious pain and taking responsibility for the life of another, but also to the mindsets, practices and habits that can provide significant protection from them. Practices of self-care, contemplation, differentiation, reflective supervision and even various spiritual disciplines drawn from long Christian tradition are presented. Students are invited not only to engage these practices throughout the course of the unit but to reflect on and evaluate their effects on them personally and as budding professionals.

Topics

1. The role of the counsellor - comparing theories
2. Counselling: vocation or career? What motivates a counsellor?
3. Examining personal assets, challenges and hazards
4. Working with difference 1: culture and gender/sexuality
5. Working with difference 2: neurodiversity and psychopathology
6. Burnout in helping professions
7. Self-care and being safe for oneself
8. Spiritual practices for sustainability
9. Contemplation and Self-Reflection
10. Gratitude and Grace: another way of seeing
11. When the client-therapist relationship is hard
12. Differentiation
13. When therapy affects the therapist
14. Why supervision?
15. Getting the most out of supervision

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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.