PYN008-1 Project

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2024, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

This unit is the first in a suite of three units PYN008-1, PYN008-2 and PYN008-3 which represent a capstone learning experience providing you with an opportunity to apply your theoretical and skill-based learning from previous counselling and supervision subjects in the QUT Psychology and Counselling Clinic.

The clinic will provide a context for the completion of a clinical project which builds upon your learning in PYN014. The reflection of supervised clinical practice (reflecting team based family therapy practice with live supervision) will assist you to describe, critically examine and deconstruct your evolving framework for your own counselling practice and for employability upon graduation. 

The project topic will be informed by your 155 hours of clinical practice where you will be exposed to a wide range of client presentations and issues and learn industry relevant- digital practices. All of which will  prepare you for work as an independent entity. 

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Apply advanced language and interpersonal skills to facilitate counselling sessions and contribute fully to collaborative enquiry processes such as reflecting team work;
2. Analyse and reflect on the ways that involvement in the clinical experience is impacting on and contributing to your developing personal framework of practice;
3. Deconstruct and self-assess your own counselling work using multiple perspectives.

Content

Learning Approaches

In this unit your delivery of team-based counselling will be supported by an orientation to the clinic. Embedded support for learning will be offered weekly in the clinic through live supervision with clinical supervisors.  Additional individual supervision can be offered upon request. A therapeutic and reflecting team will assist you to deconstruct and debrief your counselling sessions. You will receive feedback and be offered additional resources by your supervisor and team members. A recorded and self-assessed client session will be reviewed by the Clinic Director who will offer feedback. You will have the opportunity to observe and learn from the counselling work of other team members and you will assist them as a reflecting team member and with peer support, feedback and debriefing.

Your academic supervisor will be available for consultation as you develop a proposal for your clinical project.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:

• Feedback within clinic supervision processes
• Feedback from peers in clinic debriefing sessions
• Criteria sheets and comments on summative assessment work
• Canvas postings

Assessment

Overview

This unit has two summative assessment tasks that represent practical and written components. Formative assessment will include debriefing and collaborative enquiry processes centred on your clinic counselling work. This will inform your completion of the first summative assessment - a reflective self-assessment of a counselling session. In the second summative assessment, you will write a discursive and expository essay which examines the influences and development of your personal counselling framework as well as a description of your clinical competencies in the QUT Counselling and Family Therapy Clinic -where you will be required to participate in 5 hours of weekly practice.

You must complete all items of assessment satisfactorily to achieve a passing grade in the unit. You must complete all items of assessment satisfactorily to achieve a passing grade in the unit and to proceed to PYN008-2 and PYN008-3.  A second attempt at an assessment due to a Fail will need to be negotiated with the unit coordinator.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale and S (Satisfactory) / U (Unsatisfactory)

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Self-assessment

You will be required to submit a recorded session of your client work, the reflecting team discussion, follow-up reflections with the clients, and your case notes (as an appendix). You will present your video, case notes, and reflections in a face-to-face supervision session with your allocated academic supervisor.

This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.

The Self-Assessment consists of 4 parts:

Part 1.  Session recording

You will record a Counselling session conducted during your work in the QUT Counselling and Family Therapy Clinic. This will include the counselling session, the reflecting team discussion, and your facilitation of post-reflecting team discussion reflections with the client. You will bring this recording along with your DE-IDENTIFIED case notes for the session to your interview with your academic supervisor.

Part 2. Process Map/Theoretical Lens 

Prior to your interview, you will complete a process map, capturing the most salient parts of your counselling session taken from your recording to conceptualise your collaborative inquiry process during the interview with your academic supervisor. This will be due 24 hours before your scheduled interview.

Part 3.  Interview 

During your interview with your academic supervisor, you will deconstruct your counselling session recording, highlighting theory, skills, intentions, and relevant personal and professional learnings. Interviews are typically scheduled in Weeks 5 - 6.

Part 4.  Written summary 

You will submit a post-interview self-assessment summary highlighting significant personal and professional learnings and detailed learning goals for your ongoing therapeutic work. This will be due approximately four weeks after your scheduled interview (typically Weeks 9-10)

Threshold Assessment:

You must complete all items of assessment to achieve a passing grade in the unit and to proceed to PYN008-2 and PYN008-3.  A second attempt at an assessment due to a Fail will need to be negotiated with the unit coordinator.

Assessment: Essay

This expository and discursive essay will outline your existing counselling skills and approach as well as the influences, principles, theories and orientations which contribute to your current personal framework of practice. You will analyse and review the impact of the clinics team-based, multiple perspectives approach to counselling on your own framework.   You will identify emerging issues, objectives and questions you have that will begin to inform your research focus in the subsequent units of your Clinical Project.

This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.

Threshold Assessment:

You must complete all items of assessment to achieve a passing grade in the unit.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Requirements to Study

Blue Card

A blue card is required to complete this unit. A blue card confirms that you have passed a screening of your criminal history (the Working with Children Check) and have been approved to work with children and young people. For more information on the blue card and how to apply please visit the QUT website.

Resources

Resource Materials

Recommended text(s)

Carey, M., & Russell, S. (2003). Outsider-witness practices: Some answers to commonly asked questions. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (1), 3-16. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/outsider-witness-practices-some-answers-commonly/docview/2618171841/se-2

Title of work:
Narrative therapy; the social construction of preferred realities (1996)
Section:
Reflecting (Chapter 7 - Reflecting) pp. 169--193
Author/editor of work:
Freedman, Jill.; Combs, Gene.
Name of Publisher:
Norton

Other

Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview.Forum : Qualitative Social Research, 12(1) Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/autoethnography-overview/docview/870465772/se-2

Escape from Bickering session 1 and 2 - You Tube.

Jane Agee (2009) Developing qualitative research questions: a reflective process,International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22:4, 431-447, DOI: 10.1080/09518390902736512

Risk Assessment Statement

There are no out-of-the-ordinary risks associated with this unit. You are referred to the university's health and safety website 'www.hrd.qut.edu.au/healthsafety/index.jsp for further information.

Course Learning Outcomes

PY12 Master of Counselling

1. Critique and employ coherent therapeutic, practical and contextually relevant counselling knowledge, skills and values that embody a collaborative professional discourse that honours multiple perspectives across culturally diverse lifespans.
   Relates to: Self-assessment, Essay
2. Critically evaluate and apply intentional practice processes, engaging advanced critical thinking and decision-making skills, underpinned by ethical and professional values and critical reflexivity to ensure culturally safe collaborative counselling.
   Relates to: Self-assessment, Essay
3. Critically evaluate and apply theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of counselling research and practice, drawing upon digital capabilities and the qualities of ethical conduct, social inclusivity, reflexivity and reflection in sustainable ways.
   Relates to: Self-assessment, Essay
4. Scrutinise counselling research literature, reflected in autoethnographic professional practice experience, to develop new knowledge integral to the standards of professional counselling practice and practice innovation.
   Relates to: Self-assessment, Essay
5. Promote and practice effective written, oral and digital communication processes including advanced listening and dialogue skills, congruent with a collaborative counselling approach, in a range of contexts.
   Relates to: Self-assessment, Essay