Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences
Course Title: Practicum in Counseling
Credit hours: 3
Course Number: APPL 703.187
Fall, 2016; Mondays 5:30-8 p.m., 8.29.2016-12.18.2016
LC213
Welcome to Practicum! I look forward to sharing this experience as you continue to develop and apply your counseling skills to your work with clients. This course meets the State of Maryland LCPC licensure requirement for a course in Field Experience.
Instructor:
Katy Shaffer, Ph.D.
Contact Information:
E-mail: Mailbox: LC 401 Phone: 410.837.5994(o); 304-283-8826(c)
I prefer that students contact me via email. I will make every effort to respond to your inquiry within 48 hours or earlier. If an issue is urgent, please indicate "urgent" within the subject line of the email and I/we will respond as soon as is practical. Cell phone number is to be used to contact me in ONLY in case of an emergency with a UB helpee.
Office Hours and Location: Wednesdays, 3-5pm and by appointment. LC 410.
Course Description:
Experience in the application of behavioral change methods and skills in a clinical or counseling setting. The student 1) functions as a professional under the supervision and guidance of an on-site director, and 2) attends scheduled group supervision meetings on campus several times during the course of the semester. Students must complete arrangements for the experience with the practicum coordinator in the semester preceding enrollment. Lab fee may be required. A maximum of 6 credits may be applied toward the degree. Eligible for continuing studies grade. Prerequisites: permission of instructor prior to registration and APPL 602, APPL 605, APPL 606 and APPL 610.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. manage anxieties about doing counseling with clients in a clinical setting
2. apply ethical standards to all aspects of the counseling process
3. utilize professional and ethical behavior in all interactions with instructor, clients, peers, and supervisors
4. establish initial rapport and collaborative treatment relationships with clients
5. describe the "process" of your sessions
6. design counseling interventions that reflect awareness of stages of clinical treatment
7. apply a theoretical and research base in assessment, conceptualization, goal-setting and treatment
planning with clients, both in vivo and in comprehensive written case summaries.
8. apply cultural self-awareness and sensitivity to the client's culture in all phases of the counseling process
9. effectively conduct terminations and/or referrals
10. begin to integrate counseling skills with your own personal style
11. maintain records of counseling and supervision hours consistent with licensing and credentialing requirements
12. communicate clearly and professionally, through written case notes and verbal case presentations about
your counseling sessions, and also about your development as a counselor-in-training during the semester.
13. maintain records of counseling sessions and communications with referring agencies and other entities in a
manner that is consistent with legal, ethical and professional standards
14. incorporate both positive and negative feedback about one’s counseling performance and skills into
counseling practice, through an ongoing self-reflective process
15. advocate for change of institutional and societal barriers that impede client development
16. as appropriate to the training site, utilize appropriate individual, couple, family, group, and/or systems modalities for initiating, maintaining, and terminating counseling in crisis intervention, and brief, intermediate, and long-term approaches.
Required Course Materials: (those in bold type need to be purchased, rented, or otherwise acquired in full!)
A graduate-level counseling theory book of your choice (for use in writing case conceptualizations).
American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA Code of ethics. Alexandria, VA: Author.
(May be downloaded from http://www.counseling.org/Resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf. Bring this reference to every class.
Day, Susan. (2004). Theory and design in counseling and psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 1-7 ( Excerpts on e-reserve)
Jongsma, A.E., Peterson, L.M. & Bruce, T.J. (2006). The Complete Adult Psychotherapy Treatment Planner
(4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
OR, the Treatment Planner suited to your practicum setting (children, adolescents, substance abuse, etc).
Teyber, E. & McClure, F.H., (2011) Interpersonal process in therapy: An integrative model. Cengage Learning.
Yalom, I. (1989). “The Wrong One Died” from Love’s Executioner. (on e-reserve)
Recommended Course Materials:
Cormier, S., Nurius, P.S., & Osborn, C.J. (2013). Interviewing and change strategies for helpers (7th ed.) Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. (Excerpts on e-reserve) (almost required!)
Pipher, M. (2003). Letters to a Young Therapist. New York: Basic Books. (available from Amazon.com)
Yalom, I. (2002). The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients. New York: HarpterCollins. (available from Amazon.com)
Course Requirements/Assignments:
You will be performing clinical work in at least two settings as part of practicum, at UB and in a primary training setting, generally off-campus. On-campus class meetings will be held weekly, for a regular 2.5-hour class period during each week of the semester.
We will meet weekly through December 5, except for September 5, which is Labor Day (holiday), and September 12, when I will be out of town (assignments for the day will be posted to Sakai – you will have work to do!). During final exam week (December 12-16), I will meet with each of you individually to wrap up your practicum experience. You must have completed your sessions with clients, and thus accumulated your required clinical hours, by class time on December 5.
Our class sessions will generally follow a case consultation format, although some may include didactic instruction. We will assess needs for case consultation at the beginning of every class, and work with the most pressing issues first. You will present cases in a more formal way (see below) on a regular basis.
It is imperative that everyone help create a positive learning environment in the practicum class. In fact, this is considered a skill set that is essential for success in this class and in the profession. It is expected that you will experience anxieties and many questions about your work with your clients (if you don’t, I’ll worry!), and that at times you will feel quite vulnerable. Bringing, sharing and "processing" the emotions that arise in working with your clients is an essential part of growing as a clinician (not a liability). You are expected to bring your fears and vulnerabilities to class, to help create a mutually supportive atmosphere wherein this is safe for everyone, to open yourself to scrutiny in this environment, to receive and productively utilize feedback that you receive from your clients, your classmates, and your instructor and to share class time equally with your classmates. Behavior that interferes with developing and maintaining a positive learning environment will result in action that, as per the UB Student Handbook, may include being directed to leave a class, and being dismissed from the course.
Forms
There is a fair amount of paperwork required in this course (as is required in counseling practice)!! See our course Sakai page, and look under “Files Directory” for required forms.
Counseling Practice and Supervision
Primary training setting. In your primary training setting, you will perform counseling and other related activities as agreed upon by you and your field supervisor. The supervisor must be a licensed practitioner (LCPC, LCSW, Psychologist, LCADC, etc.). Also, your instructor is available for consultation by phone, email, or meetings between class sessions. You will spend approximately 8 hours per week on site to accrue the required 100 hours of professional experience at the site. You must also accrue at least 40 hours of client contact (counseling), of which at least 20 hours must be in individual, ongoing sessions. You will complete case notes and other documentation as directed by your site.
UB clients. You will complete at least THREE interviews with UB students (“helpees”) in the Lassen Training Clinic (“Clinic”). These sessions give you an opportunity to practice your skills in a relatively safe setting, and will also be part of a class assignment for your helpee. These sessions are training exercises and NOT counseling/therapy sessions, and these hours do not count toward the clinical hours required for the practicum. More information will be given in class about this assignment. Ongoing sessions should occur once per week, and be conducted in a timely way so that your helpees can meet class expectations for this experience. You must use your listening skills to establish rapport and comfort within these sessions. Your instructor is the supervisor for this assignment.
You will be assigned an undergraduate (Psyc 340, Counseling Psychology) student. These students will meet with you for 3 sessions (no extensions allowed). Keep track of their attendance, as you will be required to report this information to their course instructor. You can see these students only during the BACKUP hours provided at the Clinic (This means you cannot hold these sessions during the ACCESS hours). Since we are working with undergrads, these sessions can be held only when backup is available by our graduate students.
For these sessions, you will be responsible for scheduling the appointments, obtaining informed consent, attending to privacy and confidentiality issues, and recording all of the sessions in their entirety.
***** You must write a DAP note for each session (See DAP notes and DAP Note Template in the Clinic Forms folder)*****
Completed DAP notes are stored in our confidential filing cabinet in the storage room of the Clinic. They must be completed in the clinic immediately following your appointment. They should not leave the Clinic or Learning Commons -- ever!! The sole exception is to bring them to our class meetings, after which you must return them to the locked file in the Clinic. DAP notes are DUE the next class period after your session.
You are responsible at all times that you are using the Clinic to keep the note storage area locked!
You will present segments of these recorded session(s) (with permission of the practice client) to the class (for more information about presentations, see “Presentations” below).
******************************************************************************************
Threats of Harm to Self or Others
If either of your UB clients ever hints at or shares ideation or passive or active intent to harm self or others, you must seek assistance! Here are your sources:
1. The Clinic Student Assistant should be your first point of contact, the person who is on duty in the Clinic during all Backup hours.
In the event of a crisis, where it would not be safe for the client to leave the Clinic, seek help from the Clinic student assistant immediately! Faculty back-ups are also available to the Assistants.
2. When you are not facing an immediate crisis (as above) but have concern, please feel free to discuss the matter with the Clinic Assistant, but also call my cell phone 304-283-8826 as soon as possible. Please know that I may be teaching or otherwise unavailable, which is why the student assistant is to be your first point of contact. I will return your call as soon as I am able.
Remember: In the event of a crisis, first go to the student assistant and then call me as soon as possible.
You must practice within your scope of competence, and it is beyond your scope to assess whether a true emergency exists in the circumstances mentioned above (ideation, intent, etc.). So it is essential that you seek assistance anytime there is potential for harm.
Legal and Ethical Issues Regarding Competence of Practicum Students
In all of your counseling practice, it is imperative to follow the ethical and legal guidelines of the profession. Some of these are provided here:
As a practicum student, you must be aware that you are responsible for practicing in accordance with the Ethical Code of the American Counseling Association. You are required to meet all of the standards of the Code, which are considered minimum standards. That is, performance that meets the standards outlined in the Code is obligatory, and considered the lowest level of acceptable practice!! Higher levels of performance than those specified in the Code are what we strive for.
Competence is a chief ethical concern. The Code requires that you not use any counseling technique for which you have not yet developed competence, unless you are being supervised in the use of that technique. Legally, the level of competence that is required is the “standard of care” that is recognized and utilized by other practitioners in the field. By virtue of having passed Basic Counseling class (or its equivalent at another institution if you are a CPCS student), it is assumed that you have developed competence to use those basic skills to establish initial rapport and develop ongoing collaborative therapeutic relationships with your clients. Nevertheless, you will be supervised on your use of your basic skills, and you must provide your supervisor and instructor with sufficient examples of them that we can provide meaningful feedback to you. ANYTIME that you struggle with rapport-building (and we all do) is the time to consult with your supervisors. (If rapport is not built, you will likely lose the client). Obviously, more advanced skills will require ongoing supervision as well. This supervision will be given by your site supervisor, and by your practicum instructor in our weekly meetings, and at other times as needed.
You should also be familiar with the ethical and legal obligations of supervisors:
1 to provide you with sufficient clients/practice opportunities for you to develop your skills,
2 to provide supervision sufficient to protect the welfare of all of your clients, (This means that a supervisor must be aware of how you are doing and what you are doing with every client.)
3 to require and support your compliance with all legal, ethical, and professional standards,
4 to provide you with regular feedback and evaluation, (You shouldn’t be surprised at the end of the semester.)
5 to teach you therapeutic skills,
6 to address any cultural differences that exist between you that may impede your supervisory relationship in any way, and
7 to refrain from any potentially exploitative dual relationship with you.
Furthermore, your supervisors bear legal responsibility for the welfare of your clients. Your supervisors are directly liable and vicariously liable for what you do with clients. Direct liability pertains to actions taken by supervisors (like giving you bad advice) that result in harm to your clients. Vicarious liability pertains to supervisors’ responsibility to oversee everything that you do. If you do things that the supervisor is unaware of, the supervisor can still be held liable. This is why it is essential that you bring ALL of your concerns about your clients to your supervisors, and that we have an atmosphere in our class where everyone can share their most scary, vulnerable and embarrassing experiences. (Times that you feel most incompetent are those that we most need to share, and must share). As stated above, it is the responsibility of every member of this class to contribute to building this safe and supportive environment.