CSD 5630: Practicum

 

 

INSTRUCTOR:         STEVEN R. CONN, Ph.D.

OFFICE:         2112 Buzzard Hall                    OFFICE HOURS:      To be announced

PHONE:          217-581-7242                         E-MAIL:         cfsrc@eiu.edu

 

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides for the development of counseling skills

under supervision within a student’s program of study.

 

PREREQUESITES:  CSD 5530 (Pre-Practicum) with a grade of B or higher.

 

TEXTS:

Corey, G. (2001).  Case approach to counseling and psychotherapy, 5th Ed.  Belmont, CA: Brooks-Cole.

 

Pipes, R. B. & Davenport, D. S. (1999).  Introduction to psychotherapy: Common clinical wisdom, 2nd Ed.  Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

 

Jongsma, A. E., Jr. & Peterson, L. M. (1999).  The complete adult psychotherapy treatment planner, 2nd Ed.  New York: Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

 

Students will:

 

a.                   Establish effective counseling relationships.

 

b.                  Analyze procedures for determining goals, solving problems, and communicating information in counseling situations.

 

c.                   Understand the needs and characteristics of clients with various mental health, adjustment, and/or developmental concerns.

 

d.                  Understand the needs and characteristics of a diverse population of clients.

 

e.                   Understand the procedures that ensure the protection of the client’s confidentiality and legal rights.

 

NOTE:

This course is designed to provide you with the opportunity to develop and refine the counseling skills that are applicable to community or a variety of other settings.  Since counseling is ordinarily a confidential process, opportunities for direct observation of one’s work becomes limited after entering the profession.  I encourage you to make full use of this opportunity to grow by having others in the field offer feedback on your work.

 

INSTRUCTIONAL MODE:

            Students will have an opportunity to engage in the therapeutic process and receive feedback on their work.  The group process will involve clinical observation, case consultation, discussion, and professional support.

 

ASSIGNMENTS: (ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ARE REQUIREMENTS)

 

1.                  Practicum site: 8 – 10 hours per week (several clients per week).  Your agreement with your site and your clients is to attend the entire semester.

 

2.                  Log 100 hours of professional activity at practicum site.  Forty (40) of these hours must be direct service hours.  A form will be provided for your documentation.  One form is to be completed each week.  An end-of-semester form that reflects the total hours from each area will also be completed.  These forms will be placed in your permanent file.

 

3.                  Provide an assessment and treatment plan for 2 different clients.  You may use the format provided by your agency or another acceptable outline.  Be sure to blacken out the client’s name and any other identifying information (e.g., address, phone number, social security number, etc.).  I recommend that you plan to submit one assessment and treatment plan, each, in March and April.  Spreading out your submissions will give you time to gain a better understanding of the assessment and treatment planning processes.  Your submissions may be for the clients you present to the class – see next assignment.

 

4.                  Prepare two case presentations for the class.  An outline of areas to cover in your presentation will be provided.  For each presentation, you will need to prepare a five-minute transcription of a session with the client you present.  Make enough copies for everyone in the class.  During your presentation, you will play the five-minute portion of the actual session and your classmates will follow along using your transcription.  Please remember to collect all copies of your transcription after your presentation and shred them.

 

5.                  Evaluate two (2) tapes provided by your peers using the Counseling Interview Rating Form.

 

6.                  Meet one hour per week with agency supervisor.

 

7.                  Tape a minimum of 12 counseling sessions (audio).  Bring one tape to each on-campus supervision session.  Also, complete a Tape Critique Form for each tape. Try to have 5 to 6 tapes completed by midterm!

 

8.                  Meet one hour per week with on-campus supervisor or assistant.  Please come prepared with working tape, cued to a portion of the session that you choose.  Also, bring a completed Tape Critique Form to accompany each tape.

 

9.                  You will be required to write a paper summarizing some of your experiences resulting from your work with clients.  Your paper should be 4 - 5 pages in length, typewritten and double-spaced.  In your paper, address the following areas and answer each of the corresponding questions:

Text Box: A. Counseling dynamics. • What interpersonal and personal dynamics did you discover from working with your clients? • How do these dynamic features affect your counseling? B. Thinking. • For which of your clients did your case conceptualizations change the most? What were the changes in your thinking? • How has your understanding about counseling changed based on your practicum experience? C. Theoretical orientation. • What theoretical approaches did you use most often with your clients? What techniques did you use with specific (2) clients? • What interventions did not work and what client factors do you think prevented the success of the interventions? [ Examples of client factors: family background, personality, mental abilities, presenting problem, demographics, etc. ] D. Personal changes. • Which of your personal attributes were most affected by your practicum experience? • In what ways has your practicum experience affected your commitment to the counseling profession?

 

 

10.              In-class participation. (This means that attendance is necessary).  Demonstrate your understanding of different approaches to counseling.

 

11.              Evaluation by on-site supervisor.  You will need to have your site supervisor complete the first evaluation at mid-term and the second at the end of the semester.

 

12.              Evaluation by on-campus supervisor.  Evaluations are scheduled for midterm and the close of the semester.

 

 

 

EVALUATION:

 

A = 131 - 150:    Clearly superior demonstration of counseling skills at the Master’s

   level.  [This also applies to a score of 10 on any of the Domain criteria.]

B =   91 - 130:    Satisfactory, consistent demonstration of counseling skills at the

   Master’s level.  [This also applies to a score of 5 on any of the Domain criteria.]

C =    50 - 90:     This grade indicates a lack of consistent demonstration of counseling

   skills expected at the Master’s level.  Further supervised experience is

               recommended. [This also applies to a score of 0 on any of the Domain criteria.]

D = < 50:           Performance is unacceptable.

 

 

ASSESSMENT:

 

Assignment

Points

 

 

Case Presentations

Assessments & Treatment Plans

  20  (10 points each)

Assessments & Treatment Plans

  20  (10 points each)

Summary Paper

  30

*Supervision

  80

 

                                                               Total Points

150

 

*Supervision includes on-site and university supervision (forms filled out, tapes cued, open response to feedback), class observations and participation, completion of hours and course requirements, and your work as a whole.  In addition, specific score assignments will be obtained from the 8 Domain criteria contained in the attached Model of Supervision sheet.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I ask that you create a folder to be turned in at the close of the semester.  Materials contained in your folder will become part of your permanent department file and should include the following:

 

1.      All weekly Activity logs

2.      One semester total Activity log

3.      Agency supervisor’s evaluations (2)

 

 

DISABILITIES

 

            If you have a documented disability and wish to receive academic accommodations, please contact the Coordinator of the Office of Disability Services (581-6583) as soon as possible.

 

Model of Supervision

 

Developmental Model of Supervision

 

            The concept of developmental supervision is presented as a relationship between supervisee and supervisor wherein professional maturity emerges over time (Whiting, Bradley, & Planny, 2001).  The developmental movement has a desired direction and is distinctive from a mere increase in quantity of clinical skills and knowledge.  The desired direction is one of qualitative transformation of the supervisee.

 

            The developmental transformation is movement toward a well-developed identity, an eclectic style sensitive to the impact of factors of diversity, greater introspective and reflective ability, an integration of theory and practice, and an autonomous means of functioning.

 

            The supervisory relationship may be viewed as a place to address issues including the impact of discrimination, power differentials, racial and cultural identification, and the feelings accompanying these experiences and struggles (Stoltenberg, McNeill, & Delworth, 1998).

 

Focus and Goals

 

            The  Developmental Model of Supervision can be characterized by eight domains of clinical activities, three structures of supervisee development, and three levels of professional development.

Text Box: Domains The domains are representative categories of knowledge central to becoming a professional clinician. The eight domains may be summarized as follows: 1. Intervention skills - the ability to implement therapeutic interventions with assuredness. 2. Assessment skills - the ability to utilize assessment protocols and devices with assuredness. 3. Interpersonal assessment - the ability to theoretical conceptualize a client's interpersonal dynamics. 4. Client conceptualization - the ability to organize client data into a meaningful diagnostic understanding upon which to base clinical treatment. 5. Individual differences - the ability to include the influences of diversity and difference into the understanding of an individual client. 6. Theoretical orientation - the ability to utilize and integrate different clinical theories and approaches. 7. Treatment plans and goals - the ability to contract for change with a client and to effectively intervene to achieve therapeutic progress. 8. Professional ethics - the ability to coordinate professional and personal ethics with standards of practice.

Structures

 

            There are three structures of the Developmental Model of Supervision that may be defined as milestones in evaluating developmental maturity.  These structures gauge the progression of various levels of professional development across specific dimensions of clinical activity.

 

                  1. Self and other awareness - the supervisee's thoughts and feelings about herself or himself and

                       about the client.

 

2. Motivation - the nature and stability of the supervisee's investment in training and practice as

    seen over time.

 

3. Autonomy - the supervisee's movement from dependence upon the supervisor's authority 

    toward independent clinical functioning.

 

Levels

 

In the supervision relationship, supervisees will function, predominantly, at one of three levels:

 

1.       Level 1 is demonstrated by supervisees who approach supervision with a marked amount of

anxiety along with an underlying high level of motivation to succeed.  A primary task of   supervisees is attaining and/or enhancing clinical skills and developing an approach to structuring client interviews that will lead to accomplishment of the client's goals.

 

2.       Level 2 supervisees exhibit a lesser need for directive structure and are encouraged to move   

toward greater autonomy.  Supervisees may struggle to cope with strengths and weaknesses as well as with the limitations of the counseling process.  They can become submerged within the client's issues, becoming so focused on the client as to be ineffective in counseling.  The key supervisee issues at this level are disruption, ambivalence, and instability.

 

3.       Level 3 supervisees have transcended the fluctuations of level 2.  Their level of professional 

motivation is relatively stable and doubts are expressed as concerns about integrating the counselor role with one' professional and personal identity.  Level 3 supervisees can be empathic with the client while maintaining enough objectivity to process the interaction.  Typically, the supervisor plays more of a consulting role.

 

 

 

References

 

Whiting, P. P., Bradley, L. J. , & Planny, K. J.  (2001).  Supervision-based developmental models of

counselor supervision.  In L. J. Bradley & N. Ladany (Eds.) Counselor supervision: Principles, process, and practice, 3rd ed.  Ann Arbor, MI: Braun-Brumfield.

 

Stoltenberg, C., McNeill, B., & Delworth, U.  (1998).  Changes in supervision as counselors and

therapists gain experience: A review.  Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 25, 416-449.