Counseling involves working with a mental health counselor or clinical mental health counselor on a specific issue for a limited amount of time. For example, counseling can help a client if s/he has difficulty managing stress and want guidance on tools s/he can use when being stressed out. Usually, counseling focuses on a specific issue for a limited amount of time. In this program, trainees will be introduced to Gerard Egan’s Skilled Helper model.

Therapy can be more long-term and focuses on a client as an individual – how a client sees himself/herself and the world, his/her thoughts, and his/her behaviors, as well as the underlying patterns of why the client does the things s/he does. For example, if a client was suffering from depression, s/he and his/her mental health therapist can explore how depression impacts his/her everyday life and how to develop better coping strategies so that the client can feel better. The client usually goes to therapy sessions on a more long-term basis. There are many types of therapies which include mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, rational emotive behavioral therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, etc.

In this ten 30-hour modules covering the entire diploma program, trainees will be taught both child and adolescent counselling and therapy. Every trainee has to cover all the 10 modules without any exemptions. This program constitutes the foundation of child and adolescent counselling and therapy.

Unit 1: The Counseling Role

Learning objective: In this unit, trainees will be introduced to counseling and therapy to explore their similarities and differences. It covers the following three key topics: (i) counseling role; (ii) counselor-client relationship (also known as therapeutic alliance); and (iii) being and active listener. There will be discussion among the trainees on a given topic related to counseling and therapy (e.g., similarities vs differences) based on what is covered in this unit.

Unit 2: The Role of a Counselor

Learning objective: This unit explores the qualities of being a counselor, creating core conditions, acceptance and self-development, life experience, and the emotional demands and rewards of personal growth as a counselor.

Unit 3: Lifespan Development for Children & Adolescents

Learning objective: This unit covers on lifespan development for children and adolescents. Lifespan development results to life transitions and can be associated with various skills such as fine motor skills, over-regularization, centration and private speech among others. Some of the lifespan developments are permanent while others only last for a while. Lifespan development is used to describe growth progression through several stages. Childhood is a period in the human lifespan between birth and 12 years. Adolescence is a period in the human lifespan between 12 and 18 years that is a transition between childhood and adulthood. During this stage individual experiences many crucial changes in physical, cognitive, social, moral, and personality dimensions.

Unit 4: Skills used in Counseling

Learning objective: This unit teaches trainees how to sharpen their awareness, use of questions, use of empathy, awareness of body language and tone of voice, reflecting skills and other additional advanced skills (e.g., silence, immediacy and challenging).

Unit 5: Benefits of Acquiring Counseling Skills

Learning objective: This unit covers the following topics: (i) the use of communication skills in personal relationships; (ii) how skills can be applied to personal and work situations; (iii) self-indulgence or a developmental stage of growth/maturity; and (iv) uses of counseling skills in work settings.

Unit 6: Counseling Practice & Counselor’s Competence

Learning objective: This unit takes trainees on a learning journey to explore the different forms of practice with singular exercises provided as well as practicing with others. Role play and the role of an observer in the role play will also be introduced to the trainees to illustrate how counseling practice is carried out.

Unit 7: Exploration in Counseling

Learning objective: This unit will look into six areas of interest relevant to counseling practice. They are as follows: (i) attending workshops; (ii) visualization; (iii) assertiveness training; (iv) stress management; (v) meditation; and (vi) dreams.

Unit 8: The Key Components in Counseling & Therapy

Learning objective: This unit explores the key components of what trainees need to know and understand about pursuing a career in counseling and/or therapy. It touches on the following topics: (i) background of counseling/ therapy; (ii) choice of course in counseling/therapy and the specialized area of interest; (iii) key components in a counseling program; (iv) developing self-awareness or mindfulness; (v) clinical supervision; (vi) theory-practice association in counseling; (vii) personal therapy; and (viii) integrationism and professional considerations.

Unit 9: The Three Major Approaches in Counseling & Therapy

Learning objective: This unit takes trainees on an in-depth exploration of three major approaches in counseling and therapy: (i) the psychodynamic approach; (ii) the humanistic/person-centered approach; and (iii) the behavioral/cognitive behavioral model. In the first approach, trainees will be introduced to the following key Jungian concepts of the unconscious, transference and counter-transference, and resistances and defenses. In the second approach, trainees will learn about the person-centered approach, the Rogerian core conditions model, and the process of change. In the third approach, trainees will learn about operant and classical conditioning, characteristics, techniques and applications of such approach and its various offshoot therapies.

Unit 10: The Skilled Helper Model

Learning objective: This unit covers the three-stage model of counseling involving the following: (i) Reviewing the current scenario; (ii) Developing the preferred scenario; and (iii) Getting there, based on Egan’s three key principles: (i) Help the clients identify, explore, and clarify their problem situations and unused opportunities; (ii) Help the clients identify what they want in terms of goals and objectives that are based on an understanding of problem situations and opportunities; and (iii) Help the clients develop action strategies for accomplishing goals, for getting what they want, respectively.

Compulsory Text: Egan, G. (1994). The skilled helper: A problem-management approach to helping. Pacific Grove, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.

Unit 11: Counseling according to Psychodynamic Approach

Learning objective: The psychodynamic counselling is derived from the classical psychoanalytic tradition, which has its origins in the work of Sigmund Freud. The word ‘psychodynamic’ is now commonly used to describe those models of therapy which have evolved from classical psychoanalysis. There are several other important ideas, which include the following: (1) the role of the unconscious; (2) the structure of personality; (3) the psychosexual stages of development; (4) the importance of the past and childhood experience: (5) the use of ego defense mechanisms; (6) transference and the nature of the therapeutic relationship; (7) the significance of dreams; (8) free association, or the ‘talking cure’; and (9) interpretation. In addition, trainees will cover Egan’s SOLER model as part of the Skilled Helper approach to counselling – a non-verbal listening process, and a key skill taught as part of the training. SOLER should be used as an integral part of active listening. SOLER stands for: (1) S: SIT SQUARELY on to the client, preferably at a 5 o’clock position to avoid the possibility of staring; (2) O: Maintain an OPEN posture at all times, not crossing your arms or legs which can appear defensive; (3) L: LEAN slightly in towards the client; (4) E: Maintain EYE CONTACT with the client without staring; and (5) R: RELAX. This should in turn help the client to relax.

Unit 12: Case Discussion based on Psychodynamic Approach to Counseling

Learning objective: This unit introduces trainees to several cases and guide them to the application of psychodynamic approach in counseling.

Unit 13: Counseling according to the Person-Centered Approach

Learning objective: The person-centered approach in counseling was developed from the concepts of humanistic psychology. The humanistic approach “views people as capable and autonomous, with the ability to resolve their difficulties, realize their potential, and change their lives in positive ways” (Seligman, 2006). Carl Rogers (a major contributor of the client-centered approach) emphasized the humanistic perspective as well as ensuring therapeutic relationships with clients promote self-esteem, authenticity and actualization in their life, and help them to use their strengths (Seligman, 2006). Currently, the person-centered approach focuses on the client being able to develop a greater understanding of self in an environment that allows the client to resolve his/her own problems without direct intervention by the counselor/therapist. The counselor/therapist should keep a questioning stance open to change as well as demonstrating courage to face the unknown. The emphasis is on the attitudes and personal characteristics of the counselor/therapist and the quality of the client-counselor/therapist relationship as being the determinants for a successful therapeutic process (Corey, 2005).

Unit 14: Case Discussion based on Person-Centered Approach to Counseling

Learning objective: This unit introduces trainees to several cases and guide them to the application of person-centered approach to counseling.

Unit 15: Counseling according to the Cognitive Approach

Learning objective: Counselling provides the opportunity to explore thoughts, feelings and emotions. Understanding why one thinks, feels and acts a certain way, and why s/he holds the beliefs that s/he does, requires that s/he has patience and a keenness to explore his/her past as well as present. In this unit, the focus is on cognitive approach to counselling centered on the belief that one’s thoughts are influenced by how one feels. There are a number of different therapies based on cognitive approach to counseling, including Cognitive-Behavioral, Reality/Choice, Rational Emotive and Transactional Analysis. Each of these cognitive approaches to counselling can help a client through the counselling process, by providing further understanding of the way his/her thoughts are sometimes distorted. This approach to counseling focuses on the present. This means that issues from the past that are influencing current thinking, are acknowledged but not concentrated on. Instead, a counsellor/therapist will work with the client on identifying what is causing distress in present thinking. What links these different forms of cognitive approach in counseling is the way in which the counselling relationship, between a counsellor and client, develops. Assertiveness exercises, role-playing and homework are also part of the supportive one-to-one sessions a client will have with a counsellor/therapist.

Unit 16: Case Discussion based on Cognitive Approach to Counseling

Learning objective: This unit introduces trainees to several cases and guide them to the application of cognitive approach to counseling.

Unit 17: Anger Management

Learning objective: This unit covers on the condition of anger and the different categories of anger as well as appropriate and inappropriate expression of anger. A Gestalt method will be introduced and trainees will be exposed to the psychodynamic perspective on anger used in anger management.

Unit 18: Underlying Issues

Learning objective: In this unit, trainees will cover on the following topics related to (i) grief and normalizing the grief, (ii) stress, anxiety, depression and suicide, (iii) self-harm or injury, (iv) issues of control, (v) bullying, and (vi) physical, emotional and sexual abuses. They will also be introduced to the letter and the empty chair technique as well as integrative approach.

Unit 19: Case Studies in Child Counseling

Learning objective: This unit covers five cases of children who need counseling. Three hours are allotted to cover each case. All the five cases touch on different challenges (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, phobia, physical and sexual abuse, conduct disorder, sibling rivalry, suicidal ideation, unresolved grief, poor anger management, stress, anxiety and depression) faced by school-age children.

Unit 20: Case Studies in Adolescent Counseling

Learning objective: This unit covers five cases of adolescents who need counseling. Three hours are allotted to cover each case. All the five cases touch on different challenges (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, phobia, physical and sexual abuse, conduct disorder, sibling rivalry, suicidal ideation, unresolved grief, poor anger management, stress, anxiety and depression) faced by adolescents.