COUN

This course orients counselors to the complexities of working with clients from diverse backgrounds and considers race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and religious/spiritual affiliation as well as discrimination related to age, poverty, gender, and disability. Students will have opportunities to reflect on the development of personal beliefs and attitudes and to develop skills for providing culturally competent communication and interventions.

This course examines the psycho-bio-social tasks in human developmental stages through the life span from a culturally responsive counseling perspective. Developmental counseling recognizes there are normative patterns of human development that can be impacted by a range of contextual variables--for example, abuse and neglect. Understanding development is important when assessing client functioning and in designing developmentally appropriate helping strategies.

This course orients students to the school setting by building competence in and understanding of the varied roles counselors take in K-12 comprehensive counseling and guidance programs.

Students learn the theory and practice of group leadership by participating in and leading a growth-oriented group. Students practice skills and receive feedback on performance.

This course assists counselors in making accurate diagnoses and developing treatment and planning skills. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association provides the framework of study.

This course is designed to provide a foundation in basic social science research methods, particularly as they pertain to counseling. Issues in research design, basic statistics, qualitative interviewing, and systematic evaluation are stressed. Students will learn how to read and understand research studies in order to develop an evidence-based practice and how to gather and use data in their own practices.

This course is structured as a 100-hour clinical experience that offers students introductory exposure to and supervised practice in the broad scope of activities engaged in by counselors. Students work with clients and hone their basic counseling and case conceptualization skills developed in COUN 620. Weekly supervision is provided by site supervisors and program faculty. Students present and review recordings and give and receive feedback on counseling skills. Successful completion of COUN 620 AND 621 is required in order to advance to internship placements.

This course provides students with the foundation for all practicum and internship experiences. Through course content, case conceptualization, and focused practice, students develop and demonstrate core communication and interpersonal skills essential for the counseling field: building relationships, conducting initial assessments, setting goals, implementing interventions, and evaluating outcomes. Students examine attitudes, values, and beliefs that enhance the helping process and acclimate to their future practicum sites. In progress pass/fail grading.

Foundational affect-oriented theories are compared and built upon: Person-Centered and Gestalt Therapies with additional focus on Transactional Analysis, Narrative Therapy, Solution-Focused, and emerging approaches emphasizing mindfulness. These theories are philosophically rooted in the Humanistic-Existential school of thought and provide experience in major modes of therapeutic intervention: reflection, confrontation, interpretation, awareness and experiment

A range of intervention strategies, both cognitive and behavioral, are studied and practiced. These include contingency management, desensitization, modeling, reality therapy, motivational interviewing, and various types of cognitive therapy.