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COUN633 Assessment and Psychodynamic Therapy

10 cp
Prerequisites COUN626 Counselling Practice Skills, COUN601 Counselling Theories and Techniques
Teaching Organisation Two contact hours per week via lectures, seminars and skills-based workshops. Additional weekly reading will be required.

This unit introduces Psychodynamic theory and practice specifically focussing on personality development, psychopathology, and the intrapsychic mechanisms involved in human functioning. Early psychoanalytic theories especially Freudian psychoanalysis will be examined. Psychodynamic theorists such as Klein, Winnicot and Fairburn will be studied to illustrate the transition of the psychodynamic perspective from intrapsychic drive theory towards contemporary object related interpersonal theory that can be applied to a variety of clinical problems. Contemporary interpersonal psychodynamic approaches to therapy will be examined, especially the work of, Sullivan, Mitchell and Meares. Core psychodynamic techniques such as working with client defences, transference and countertransference, interpretation, and therapeutic containment will be addressed. Students will develop psychodynamic case formulation skills and an awareness of their own internal experience of the processes that occur in therapy with their clients. Reflection on the relevance and application of the approach for a range of psychological problems will be encouraged.

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Units 2012