| Semester 1, 2022 External | |
| Units : | 1 |
| Faculty or Section : | Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences |
| School or Department : | School of Psychology and Wellbeing |
| Grading basis : | Graded |
| Course fee schedule : | /current-students/administration/fees/fee-schedules |
Staffing
Examiner:
Requisites
Pre-requisite: Students must be enrolled in one of the following Programs: GCCO or GDCN or MCCO or PDEV or GCHH or GDHH or MOHH
Overview
Psychoeducation and counselling often take place in groups. The group context provides unique potential and power as a medium for change. Facilitating groups such as these requires an understanding of the basic issues and concepts of group process, as well as the leadership skills to apply these concepts effectively in group work. The knowledge and skills acquired in this course are designed to address areas of competence specified in the professional accreditation standards for postgraduate counselling training and will be relevant to similar standards in most allied health disciplines.
This course contains a mandatory four-day residential school and 10 hours of mandatory online synchronous tutorials.
Successful psychoeducational, counselling and supervision groups are led by facilitators who have developed competencies in planning, listening, observing, and responding to group dynamics and process, and leading interventions. This course equips students with an understanding of the theoretical bases for group work and provides opportunity for students to learn about the process of different types of groups from beginning to end. In the first group of topics, the focus is on understanding the theory of group work, understanding the role of the group leader/s, and exploring ethical and legal issues in group counselling. The focus then shifts to understanding the group process. Finally, the course focuses on the application of group work in various settings.
This course contains a mandatory four-day residential school and 10 hours of mandatory online synchronous tutorials.
Course learning outcomes
On completion of this course students should be able to:
- Discuss various group types, formats and stages;
- Critically discuss ethical and professional issues in group counselling;
- Articulate understanding of the importance of cultural awareness in group facilitation;
- Critically review a group from both functional and process perspectives;
- Develop and demonstrate foundational skills as a group facilitator and reflect on level of preparedness to undertake this role;
- Reflect on and analyse a group process experience from a personal and conceptual perspective.
Topics
| Description | Weighting(%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Introduction to Group Work: A Multicultural Perspective | 10.00 |
| 2. | The Group Counsellor | 10.00 |
| 3. | Ethical and Legal Issues in Group Counselling | 10.00 |
| 4. | Theories and Techniques of Group Counselling | 10.00 |
| 5. | Group Process: Stages of Development | 50.00 |
| 6. | Application of Group Process to Specific Settings (Schools and Community Agency) | 10.00 |
Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed
Student workload expectations
To do well in this subject, students are expected to commit approximately 10 hours per week including class contact hours, independent study, and all assessment tasks. If you are undertaking additional activities, which may include placements and residential schools, the weekly workload hours may vary.
Assessment details
| Description | Group Assessment |
Weighting (%) | Course learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiz | No | 20 | 1,2,3 |
| Essay | No | 30 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Presentation (ind, grp, mltmd) A1 of 2 | Yes | 20 | 5 |
| Practical | No | ||
| Presentation (ind, grp, mltmd) A2 of 2 | No | 30 | 4,5,6 |