Pre-requisites

CN8100 Basic Counselling Skills;
CN8200 Counselling for Common Issues;
CN8300 Ethical and Professional Practice

Plus at least three (3) other first year units.

Co-requisites

CN9100 Counselling Frameworks and Evidence in Practice

Learning Outcomes

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

• Create learning goals and monitor client outcomes through the process of professional supervision

• Communicate respectfully with clients, colleagues and community members acting in a professional and ethical manner

• Critically reflect on own practice, values, beliefs, assumptions and emotional responses with a view towards professional growth

• Apply counselling theory, skills, knowledge and values effectively, with initiative and judgment, in a practice-based setting

Unit Description

As the first of two counselling placement units, Practicum 1 guides students through their first 100 hours of on-the-job learning. Students will be supported to find placement within a practice or organisation that will provide them with 100 hours of counselling-related work over the course of the semester. This must include at least 40 hours of face-to-face contact with clients, and 25 hours of supervision - divided between group supervision with classmates and individual supervision within the workplace.

In addition, students in this unit are expected to complete a learning agreement designed to help them make the most of both the work experience and the supervision surrounding it. Reflective assessments further enhance the learning process and a supervisor evaluation provides specific areas of competency to celebrate or develop further.

This unit is a hurdle unit: all assessments must be satisfactorily completed but no grades are awarded.

Topics

1. Reflection on application – critical reflection on own work in applying counselling skills and approaches, to improve clinical skills
2. Reflection on responses – biases, assumptions, emotional responses, any transference
3. Professional practice – improving communication skills with clients, colleagues and organisations
4. Supervision – learning agreement with specific goals, tasks, agency polices and ethics
5. Individual supervision – field supervisor for debriefing, developing clinical skills, and direction towards more professional development, and monitor self-care
6. Group supervision – share experiences, gain insights, learn different perspectives

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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.