Advanced Group and Family Counseling

Catalog description

This course focuses on the basics of systems intervention with a specific focus on families and groups. The purpose is to develop more advanced knowledge of practical therapeutic problem-solving skills at the graduate student level using ecological, systemic, and cultural perspectives. Students will be exposed to advanced group therapy strategies with children, youth, and adults, with family interventions across various mental health diagnostic populations, and how to intervene within groups and families in which cultural differences and styles are key themes. Prerequisite: Students must be enrolled in the M. Phil. Ed. in Professional Counseling Program. Students will also be challenged to develop a preliminary rationale for a systemic theory of behavior change. Given the diversity of clients that counselors see professionally, some advanced and demonstrated knowledge of how cultural differences will be addressed in the counseling session and in the relationships of larger societal institutions will be expected. This course will satisfy the Group work II requirement of the MPE program in Professional Counseling and Psychology. The course also fits within the APHD theme of Applied Psychology: Intervention and Certification. Prerequisite: Students must be enrolled in the M. Phil. Ed. in Professional Counseling Program.