The Jansen Newman Institute offers a two-year Graduate Diploma of Counselling and Psychotherapy. The Graduate Diploma is accredited at Higher Education level.

Overview

This is a fully integrated 2 year program. Students learn practical skills in direct relation to relevant theory. They experience the impact of change processes in a small group setting. Students are asked to read, discuss and reflect upon the wider context in which the roles of counsellor and change agent have arisen and are acted out in practice. The course consists of the following four interrelated strands:

Theoretical studies
Practicum (skills development via peer skills practice and clinical internship)
Personal Development
Supervision
Aims of the Course

At the point of their graduation from the Graduate Diploma of Counselling and Psychotherapy, students will be able to:

Evaluate and apply theories of human development in understanding and working with individuals, families and groups experiencing developmental transitions across the lifespan
Critically examine the application of theories of personality in a variety of counselling and psychotherapeutic processes
Demonstrate understanding of the implications of variability in age, gender, culture and ethnicity, race, religious preference, sexual orientation, physical, lifestyle and family patterns to working with clients
Demonstrate understanding of issues and trends affecting diverse groups within contemporary Australian culture and appraise their relevance to specific client contexts
Respond appropriately to various cross cultural client issues within the therapeutic setting.
Critically evaluate a range of modalities in relation to their foundations of development, their major components, research effectiveness and application to practice
Establish an effective therapeutic relationship and develop and maintain appropriate professional boundaries
Conceptualise and assess client issues and select appropriate therapeutic strategies and interventions
Demonstrate sophisticated understanding and application of effective counselling and psychotherapeutic approaches and techniques to facilitate client exploration of issues, examination of alternate perspectives, and development of appropriate actions with respect to the issues presented
Demonstrate capacity to engage for self-exploration and reflection as part of understanding own perspectives and possible issues in engaging in the therapeutic relationship
Recognise and integrate understanding of a systems perspective in working with clients
Critically examine the implications for group therapeutic interventions of group goals, function, structure and processes, including communication, norms, decision-making, problem solving and conflict management and phases of group development
Apply and critically review own group therapeutic skills within clinical contexts
Evaluate theories related to couple and family therapy including evidence-based research regarding selected approaches
Engage with and critically reflect on the principles and value of supervision in informing one's own practice
Demonstrate understanding and attributes consistent with application of high ethical standards and professional practice as a counsellor and psychotherapist.

Year One Course Content

Developmental Psychology
This subject provides the initial theoretical foundation for the qualification. Students are introduced to the influential approaches of Adler, Rogers, Psychodynamic Therapy and Transactional Analysis. This is integrated with an introduction to human development and appropriate stages of psychosocial development. The subject allows students to develop an understanding of the interrelationship between key transitions in the lifespan and number of human problems and some therapeutic interventions that might be used drawing from the four modalities as appropriate. This understanding is further developed through the parallel subject, Practicum 1: Core Skills where students have an opportunity to observe and practise some of the "change technologies" used within these modalities. The subject also establishes a firm developmental foundation for the concepts and techniques presented in Personality Development Theory.

Personality Development Theory
This subject provides further theoretical underpinning introduced in Developmental Psychology. Here students undertake a systematic study of personality: its genesis, development, and typologies. Two major modalities of individual change are also introduced this semester: Gestalt therapy, and the behavioural and cognitive approaches. The behaviourist tradition has been, along with the psychodynamic tradition, the most influential paradigm of individual change over the past century. The behavioural and cognitive behavioural approaches seem particularly geared to adult rationality, and hence are appropriately supported by a series of lectures on human development during the adult years. A full understanding of motivation, and of resistance to change, also requires an understanding of personality formation and development from infancy to adulthood. Gestalt therapy provides a striking contrast with the cognitive and behavioural approaches. Students are also introduced to Existential Psychotherapy and Narrative Therapy. Conceptual understanding is further developed through the parallel subject, Practicum II: Micro Skills where students have an opportunity to observe and practise some of the "change technologies" associated with behavioural, cognitive and Gestalt approaches.

Practicum 1: Core Skills
This subject introduces students to the core skills for counselling and change work. Whatever the context, human change work always involves listening carefully to clients and eliciting significant information. Intending change agents must possess the baseline skills necessary for doing this. They must also be able to communicate clearly and assertively in the process of making a contract with a client/client group. The skills of establishing a safe, empathic and trusting relationship are also a prerequisite for virtually all psychotherapeutic processes. Underpinning effective use of any particular therapeutic modality are the skills of listening, tracking clients’ concerns, and checking that information has been correctly understood. It also provides students with the opportunity to observe and practise some of the "change technologies" associated with the modalities introduced into the parallel theory based subject Developmental Psychology. This subject uses a highly experiential approach to developing students' core skills accompanied by close observation and clinical feedback from the lecturer/supervisor.

Practicum II: Micro Skills
This subject further develops students' skills for counselling and change introduced in Practicum 1: Core Skills. As students gain experience in conducting not just one, but a sequence of interviews, the skills of challenging and interpretation come more to the fore. Students need to learn such skills in the context of appropriate timing, and to develop a sense of when ‘resistance’ is to be confronted openly, and when it is better simply to respect client defences. In this subject students also have the opportunity to observe and practise some of the "change technologies" associated with the modalities introduced into the parallel theory based subject Personality Development Theory. By the end of the semester, students will have worked with at least two clients over three sessions or more, and will have submitted an assessment where they reflect on and appraise their own standards of competence in their interactions within the helping role. This is in preparation for second year work in the Trainee Clinic. As with all the Practicum subjects it uses an experiential approach to developing fundamental skills for working with clients.

Group Therapy I
Group Therapy, in a small group context, has been for many years a well-recognised method of counsellor/change agent training. Experiencing their own vulnerability, resistance, and openness in the context of the vulnerability, resistance and openness of peers, is a powerful learning context for students. Moreover, it could be contended that every would-be counsellor or change agent should have experienced her/his own vulnerability, resistance to change, defences, and ‘blind spots’ in relation to a cross section of others. Without such experience of the ‘role of client’, the possibility of responsible, ethical and empathic work with one’s own clients becomes more problematic. A therapy group provides students with valuable role modelling and strong support as they struggle with their own personal issues. This subject interacts with Practicum I: Core Skills, since students identify personal blocks, which interfere with their counselling, and can then take these difficulties direct to their group for exploration. Student learning of the principles of group process provides a vital underpinning for their later grasp of the principles of system change (Year Two theory subjects). In their group, students also see demonstrated many of the concepts that they encounter in Developmental Psychology classes, for example, projection and transference.

Group Therapy II
Students remain in the same group as Group Therapy 1 in order to maximise on the therapeutic factors of safety and trust that have been built up over the first semester’s work. A change of faculty facilitator provides the opportunity for students to learn about different leadership styles and their impact, and for each student to take advantage of a different therapeutic approach and role model. Students are expected to increasingly take responsibility for working with each other within the group, as preparation for Group Therapy III. This subject interacts with Practicum II: Micro Skills, since students identify personal blocks, which interfere with their counselling, and can then take these difficulties direct to their group for exploration. Student learning of the principles of group process provides a vital underpinning for their later grasp of the principles of system change (Year Two theory subjects). In their group, students also see demonstrated many of the concepts that they encounter in Developmental Psychology and Personality Development Theory.

Year Two Course Content

Couple and Family Therapy
This subject provides further theoretical underpinning for this qualification. It focuses on systemic theories related to counselling individuals, couples and families on relationship issues. The systemic paradigm is the most powerful set of ideas in human change since Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Turning completely away from a concern with aetiology and explanation, systemic theory is concerned with the interpersonal factors and patterns over time, and how they create, maintain and change individuals and relationships comprising a system. This subject deliberately adopts an historical approach to the development of systemic concepts and practices with families and couples, so that students can gain a perspective on how systemic ideas and couple and family therapy have evolved as a solution to society’s longstanding mental health issues. There is a particular emphasis on Murray Bowen’s Family Systems Theory. As in the Year I Developmental Psychology and Personality Development Theory subjects there is a linking of particular modalities with the personalities and life histories of their founders. Theoretical understanding is supported by the parallel subject, Practicum III: Trainee Clinic where students have opportunity in Semester I and further in Semester 2, to observe couple therapy conducted by one or more experienced therapists over a series of sessions.

Therapeutic Assessment and Intervention
Students beginning to encounter real clients in Practicum III: Trainee Clinic require not only intensive supervision, which is part of that subject, but also an exposure to research and best practice in relation to a range of commonly presented problems and syndromes, at the individual and small social system level. While students must gain an experiential sense of each category of symptomatology through direct experience of client work, this knowledge can only grow slowly at this stage in the individual student’s development. This needs to be supplemented by contact with faculty who specialise in working with particular problems/client groups. In this subject, students also begin to see how the individual change modalities encountered in Developmental Psychology, Personality Development Theory and Couple and Family Therapy conceptualise and treat particular human difficulties. Concepts of cultural biases and cultural differences are introduced because they can radically cut across or modify standard western assumptions about pathology and normality.

Practicum III: Trainee Clinic
This subject further develops students' skills for counselling and change introduced in Practicum 1: Core Skills and Practicum II: Micro Skills. Real clients tend to exhibit a wider range of personal and interpersonal difficulties than trainees, and sometimes also pose problems of resistance / reluctance, despite their expressed wish to be helped. Accordingly, skills of dealing empathically and insightfully with resistance are a common focus in this subject. The skills of assessment and treatment planning are also appropriately introduced at this stage in the program. Once students begin seeing clients over more than a single session, they are likely to encounter strong and deeply rooted feelings of their own towards their clients (‘countertransference’). Supervision sessions enable students to identify and work through their own countertransference issues, as well as helping them experiment with strategies to work with ‘resistant’ clients. Supervision functions not only to assist students to learn, it also functions as a protective and quality control device, when vulnerable clients are being seen by relatively inexperienced trainees. Students are evaluated for their readiness before commencing counselling work with clients in the trainee clinic. For those students who are determined as needing additional skills, further skills development is provided by having additional classes, and support from the Student Support Coordinator.

Group Therapy III
Having experienced two consecutive semesters of being a group participant and ‘client’ within the personal development group, students now begin to take the role of observer/consultant to their group with increasing skill and insight. The faculty leader steps back to allow trainee leaders to adopt the leadership role, but remains present to supply support and supervision as needed. In this, their third semester of group work, students gain deeper understanding of group processes and of developmental patterns in the life of the group. This subject supports and is supported by students' study of systemic processes in Couple and Family Therapy. The subject also interacts with Practicum III: Trainee Clinic, since students identify personal challenges that interfere with their trainee clinical counselling, and can then take these difficulties direct to their group for exploration and discussion. This sharing of clinical experiences supports students in further developing their self-awareness and collegiality as developing practitioners.

Group Therapy IV
This subject continues and deepens students' experiences and opportunity for exploration of group processes related to a therapeutic focus. As students become increasingly comfortable and safe in the small group environment, they are willing to take greater risks and in this semester students typically gain increasingly sophisticated understanding and skills related to group processes. Further experience in the role as co-leader prepares students for group leadership roles in future occupations. The subject also interacts with Practicum III: Trainee Clinic, as students take on increasing counselling through the Trainee Clinic. Here again in the Personal Development strand, students can explore and discuss challenges related to their counselling role. This sharing of clinical experiences further supports students in developing their self-awareness and collegiality as developing practitioners.

Minor Dissertation: Differentiation of Self
There is strong research to support that trainee therapist gain significant benefit personally and professionally from Family of Origin work. The benefits of their deep understanding of their family background provide a valuable foundation for their work with clients. This personal development work is also supported through the students’ work in Group Therapy III and IV. Students research their family of origin from Murray Bowen's Multigenerational Family Theory perspective and critically evaluate its assumptions and implications.

Elective Study
Graduate Diploma students complete one elective provided by the Institute within the second year of their course. Electives are presented in various ways; weekends, evenings, days or as Summer School in January each year.