| CODE | COU5227 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Introduction to Counselling for Personal and Professional Development | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Counselling | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will introduce counselling as a profession. It will enable students to critically debate the core issues in counselling, including definitions, skills, theoretical approaches, cross cultural approaches, ethical considerations and different philosophical standpoints. It will also provide opportunities for the students to reflect and discuss the personal and professional identities of the counsellor. Study-Unit Aims: - To define counselling and the counselling profession; - To discuss similarities and differences between counselling and different forms of support; - To introduce the counselling process and helping alliance; - To introduce the core conditions in helping relationships, including empathic understanding; - To introduce professional issues, including supervision, personal therapy, association membership, continuous professional development, and warranting; - To introduce reflexivity, including the counsellor鈥檚 personal and professional identity; - To expose students to the skills and qualities of the effective counsellor; - To introduce basic ethical issues in counselling practice and counselling and the law; - To introduce the concept of and keeping of a reflective journal. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Critically evaluate the origins, history, philosophy and growth of the counselling profession; - Define the counsellor's role in issues around advocacy, social justice and conflict resolution; - Recognise the ethical standards and requirements, including warranting and accreditation, professional and ethical requirements, and work within counselling professional bodies; - Appraise the ethical standards of MACP and related and international entities, including the application of ethical and legal considerations in professional counselling; - Define the concepts of counselling supervision. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Identify the behaviours and attitudes of an effective helper; - Describe individual, couple, group and community approaches; - Compare and contrast counselling skills, approaches and techniques. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Bond, T. (2015). Standards and ethics for counselling in action (4th ed.) Sage Publications. - MACP Code of Ethics - https://macpmalta.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CodeofEthics-2014 Supplementary Readings: - Bor, R. & Watts, M. (2011). The trainee handbook: A guide for counseling and psychotherapy trainees (3rd ed.). Sage Publications. - Culley, S. & Bond, T. (2004). Integrative counselling skills in action. SAGE Publications Ltd. - Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Penguin [U1] - Gladding S. T. (2009). Counseling: A comprehensive profession (6th Edition). Pearson - McLeod, J. (2007). Counselling skills. Open University Press. - McLeod, J. (2004). The counsellor鈥檚 workbook - Developing a personal approach. Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education. - McLeod, J. (2013). An introduction to counselling (5th ed.) Open University Press. - Nelson-Jones, R. (2006). Human relationship skills. Routledge. - Nelson-Jones, R. (2000). Introduction to counselling skills: Text and activities. SAGE Publications Ltd. - Wright, J., Bolton, G. (2012). Reflective writing in counselling and psychotherapy Sage Publications. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Students are expected to attend all the lectures and prepare themselves by completing assigned readings prior to the respective lecture. | ||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Dione Mifsud |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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