Counselling Theory and Practice II

Curriculum guideline

Effective Date:
Course
Discontinued
No
Course code
SOWK 3122
Descriptive
Counselling Theory and Practice II
Department
Social Work
Faculty
Applied Community Studies
Credits
3.00
Start date
End term
Not Specified
PLAR
No
Semester length
15 weeks
Max class size
18
Course designation
None
Industry designation
None
Contact hours

Lecture: 2 hours/week

and

Lab: 2 hours/week

Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Lab
Learning activities

Lecture
Role playing
Small group discussion.

 

Course description
This course offers students the opportunity to explore strengths-based, best-practice approaches for counselling individuals, with an emphasis on anti-colonial and anti-racist frameworks. Building on the foundational concepts of SOWK 2122, this course includes evidence-based approaches such as cognitive behavioural counselling, brief counselling, crisis intervention, and motivational interviewing. Through an inclusive, culturally responsive lens, students will develop skills to engage with clients’ individual, systemic, cultural, and spiritual differences, deepening their ability to provide compassionate, empowering, and socially just support.
Course content

Course content will be guided by research, empirical knowledge and best practices. The following values and principles, consistent with professional standards, inform course content.

  • Effective practice acknowledges the influence of environmental factors, integrates principles of social justice, and recognizes the interconnectedness between individual well-being and broader systemic and ecological issues.
  • Effective social workers are informed by evidence-based research and approaches.
  • Proficient social workers have the capacity to be versatile and draw on an eclectic variety of counselling approaches.
  • Understanding individual and cultural differences is an essential element of professional practice.
  • Professional development requires an ongoing commitment to developing self-awareness, making oneself available for feedback, and monitoring and evaluating one’s competence, as well as utilizing supervision, professional literature, and training opportunities.
  • Communication and counselling skills are practiced in the context of the Social Work Code of Ethics.

 

 

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Use foundational counselling skills to effectively support clients in diverse practice settings.
  2. Apply evidence-based social work counselling practices.
  3. Explain critiques of western counselling models and their impact on marginalized populations.
  4. Demonstrate relationships rooted in empathy, cultural humility, and reciprocity.
  5. Use alternative ways of healing into counselling practice, promoting culturally responsive care.
  6. Demonstrate reflexive practice skills to assess and integrate multiple approaches in work with diverse individuals, families, and communities.
  7. Describe de-escalation strategies.
  8. Demonstrate an understanding of the goals of crisis intervention and the skills to intervene in suicide risk situations.
  9. Demonstrate motivational interviewing skills, cognitive behavioural counselling skills, brief counselling, effective mediation  skills, and knowledge of strategies for engagement. 

 

Means of assessment

This course will conform to Douglas College Evaluation Policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Other means of evaluation may include a combination of:

  • Papers
  • Case study analysis
  • Role-play demonstrations
  • Exams

Evaluations will be carried out in accordance with Douglas College Evaluation Policy and will include both formative and summative components. Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in a course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.

 

Textbook materials

Texts such as the following, the list to be updated periodically:

A Practical Guide For Counsellors: Co-Creating Safe and Culturally Responsive Relational Spaces by G.Ko, M.Anderson, S.Collins, and Y.
Yasynskyy (Eds.), 2023. Copyright 2023 by Counselling Concepts. CCBY-NC-SA4.0.

  

Prerequisites
Corequisites

None

Equivalencies

None

Which prerequisite

Nil