ArgosyUniversity

COURSE SYLLABUS

PSY400

Counseling Theories

Faculty Information

Faculty Name: Carol M. Lewis MS LCPC

Campus: Chicago, Illinois

Contact Information: : Office phone: 312-567-2334

Home phone: 708-485-2417

Email:

Most often I will respond to email messages and phone messages by the following day, and when possible on the same day.

Office Hours: I will be available for brief meetings in the late afternoon or early evening before each class. Meetings may be arranged by contacting me to schedule an appointment.

Short Faculty Bio:I am Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, with a Master of Science in Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology. I have been a psychotherapist for more than thirty years. In my clinical work I provide diagnostic assessment and outpatient treatment for adults of diverse cultural background and clinical needs at MercyHospitalMentalHealthCenter in Chicago. My primary research work has been the study of psychotherapeutic processes and developmental processes in psychotherapeutic groups. My published work includes The Process of Group Psychotherapy: Systems for Analyzing Change, APA Books, of which I am both co-editor and a contributing author. I’ve been a member of the faculty at ArgosyUniversity for more than two years.

Course description:The basic theory, principles, and techniques of counseling and its application to professional counseling settings are explained. Also considered are the various theories of counseling and issues in the practice of professional counseling.

Course Pre-requisites: PSY101

Required Textbook:

Corey, G. (2005). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (including the Student Manual). Brooks/Cole. ISBN: 0534536050

This is the 7th edition of the text. A copy of the 6th edition will also be fine. In addition to the text, we will use primary source material, short works or excerpts of longer works from the major theorists that are available on the web or through the data base of the Argosy library. I will bring a list of these readings for the first class on July 2, 2007.

Course length: 7.5 Weeks We will meet on Monday evenings from 6 to 10pm for seven weeks, beginning Monday July 2, 2007

Here is a flexible outline of the sequence of study during those weeks.

Week one: We will review common factors to look for across all the approaches to counseling, and take a first look at ethical standards. Then we will start in with major theorists, beginning in this class with Freud and Psychoanalytic theory. Review Corey chapters 2, 3, and 4.

Week two: Adlerian theory, Corey, chapter 5

Week three: Existential theory, Corey, chapter 6

Week four: Client-Centered and Gestalt theories, Corey chapters 7 and 8.

Week five: Cognitive and Behavior theories, Corey chapters 10 and 9.

Week 6: Family theory and Post-Modern theories. Corey chapters 14 and 13.

Week 7: Integration of the theories. Corey chapter 15.

Remember, this is a flexible outline. We will view video tapes of various theoretical approaches, with many demonstrated by the founding theorist. We will also have short primary source readings for many weeks. Homework will include writing assignments as well as the reading, each one designed to facilitate learning each of the theories. We will have a final exam in class.

Credit Value: 3.0

Program Outcomes:

  1. Cognitive Abilities
  2. Critical Thinking - Given a psychological issue, employ skeptical inquiry and a scientific approach to respond to the issue.
  3. Information Literacy - Given a research question related to psychology, access information from a variety of sources and select appropriate sources to respond to the question.
  4. Research
  5. Understanding Research Methods – Given an article about research findings in the field of psychology from a scholarly journal, identify the research methods used and the findings of the article.
  6. Identifying Research Methods – Identify the appropriate statistical tools and basic research methods in psychology, including research design, data analysis, and interpretation.
  7. Communication Skills
  8. Oral - Effectively present psychological concepts orally as appropriate to the audience.
  9. Written - Effectively present psychological information, in writing, using software and style appropriate to the audience.
  10. Ethics/Diversity
  11. Ethics - Identify the issues and challenges related to ethics in the field of psychology.
  12. Diversity - Identify the issues and challenges related to diversity in the field of psychology.
  13. Knowledge of the Field
  14. Foundations – Recognize the major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, applications, and historical trends in psychology.
  15. Knowledge of Applied Psychology
  16. Apply psychological principles to personal, social, and/or organizational issues.

Course Objectives:

  1. Understand and appreciate different theoretical approaches to counseling and demonstrate an ability to integrate multiple counseling techniques.(Program Outcome(s): 4.1, & 5)
  2. Describe the key concepts that make each theoretical approach unique to counseling.
  3. Examine the similarities and differences in these theoretical approaches.
  4. Analyze how different theoretical approaches fit into the various stages of therapy and/or the process of change with clients.
  5. Explore key ethical topics in the counseling profession.(Program Outcome(s): 4.1)
  6. Discuss the APA ethical code for psychologists.
  7. Examine the common and unintentional ethical breaches associated with the counseling profession.
  8. Analyze the solutions to situations involving ethical dilemmas.
  9. Examine the value and belief assumptions held by both clients and psychotherapists and how these are used during counseling.(Program Outcome(s): 1.1, 5, & 6)
  10. Analyze the influence of the counselor’s own beliefs and values on the counseling process.
  11. Analyze the impact of the counselors’ personal strengths and weaknesses on their performance.
  12. Analyze the impact that clients’ beliefs and assumptions have on their life choices and decisions and how counselors can use this information in therapy to facilitate client growth.
  13. Learn how diverse cultural values affect the counseling process.(Program Outcome(s): 3.1, 4.2)
  14. Discuss the influence of counselor’s own culture on therapy.
  15. Discuss the influence of the client’s culture, such as age, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and sexual orientation, on therapy.
  16. Examine the individual needs, motivations, and personal characteristics that may help or hinder a profession in human services.(Program Outcome(s): 1.1, & 5)
  17. Analyze the reinforcements the counselors elicit from clients to feed their ideas/images about themselves.
  18. Analyze the personal characteristics of a successful counselor and ways in which they can be developed or strengthened.

Criteria for Written Assignments

Grade
A = 90+ / Written discussion is well organized and provides an excellent summary of the topic area. Concepts are clearly understood and comprehensively discussed. All critical elements are addressed. There are no spelling or grammatical errors.
B = 80 – 89 / Written discussion is well organized and provides a good summary of the topic area. There are few spelling or grammatical errors. Presents a good discussion of the questions posed.
C = 70 – 79 / Summary of material and explanations of the topic concepts are marginal; discussion is slightly disorganized. There are several spelling and grammatical errors.
D = 60 - 69 / Write up is disorganized. Summaries and explanations are inadequate. There are many spelling and grammatical errors.
F = <60 / Assignment was not completed by student or multiple required elements were missing.

Grading Criteria

Grading Scale

A / 100 -93
A- / 92 – 90
B+ / 89 – 88
B / 87 – 83
B- / 82 – 80
C+ / 79 – 78
C / 77 – 73
C- / 72 – 70
D+ / 69 -68
D / 67 – 63
D- / 62 – 60
F / 59 and below

Library:

All resources in ArgosyUniversity’s online collection are available through the Internet. The campus librarian will provide students with links, user IDs, and passwords.

Library Resources: ArgosyUniversity’s core online collection features nearly 21,000 full-text journals and 23,000 electronic books and other content covering all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Career & General Education, Computers, Engineering & Applied Science, Humanities, Science, Medicine & Allied Health, and Social & Behavior Sciences. Many titles are directly accessible through the Online Public Access Catalog at Detailed descriptions of online resources are located at

In addition to online resources, ArgosyUniversity’s onsite collections contain a wealth of subject-specific research materials searchable in the Online Public Access Catalog. Catalog searching is easily limited to individual campus collections. Alternatively, students can search combined collections of all Argosy University Libraries. Students are encouraged to seek research and reference assistance from campus librarians.

Information Literacy: ArgosyUniversity’s Information Literacy Tutorial was developed to teach students fundamental and transferable research skills. The tutorial consists of five modules where students learn to select sources appropriate for academic-level research, search periodical indexes and search engines, and evaluate and cite information. In the tutorial, students study concepts and practice them through interactions. At the conclusion of each module, they can test their comprehension and receive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Please view the tutorial at

Academic Policies

Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, ArgosyUniversity requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition (2001). WashingtonDC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the ArgosyUniversity catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism.

Scholarly writing: The faculty at ArgosyUniversity is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” ( an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language.

Americans with Disabilities Act Policy

It is the policy of ArgosyUniversity to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request.

Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor. In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner.

The ArgosyUniversity Statement Regarding Diversity

ArgosyUniversity prepares students to serve populations with diverse social, ethnic, economic, and educational experiences. Both

the academic and training curricula are designed to provide an environment in which students can develop the skills and attitudes essential to working with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

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