DCES 703 - Advanced Counseling Theories, Integration & Change

3
This course is an advanced, in-depth, exploration of the theories of counseling, including philosophical presuppositions, assumptions, and implications of counseling and psychotherapy and its theoretical dilemma. Also examined are research findings on consciousness and human change processes such as the stages, processes, and precursors of change. Students learn classic Asian psychologies such as Buddhism, Yoga, & Hinduism and corresponding practices. Students are trained to use thinking styles such as dialectical, logical, critical thinking, and synthesis to examine and expose the conceptual underpinnings of the profession. The course is grounded in the research literature on effectiveness and models of psychotherapeutic change. The importance of the therapeutic relationship is emphasized along with advanced practices with diverse populations in the context of oppression, freedom, liberation, and social justice. In addition, students study various approaches to psychotherapy integration, such as assimilative, technical eclecticism, theoretical integration, teleological integration, and common factors. The course also supports further development of professional expertise, fluidity, and effectiveness in developing the student’s own personal therapeutic characteristics and therapeutic presence. This includes an examination and integration of Adlerian counseling with mainstream counseling and psychotherapy.