PYB359 Working with Families and Groups

Unit Outline: Semester 2 2025, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

In today’s health settings, counsellors and psychologists increasingly work with families, couples, and groups. 

In PYB359, you will explore how systemic thinking shapes therapeutic work with more than one person. Through the lens of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Narrative approaches, you’ll learn how to adapt and apply key ideas and techniques to relational and group contexts.

Taught from a collaborative, practice-based perspective, the course invites multiple viewpoints and encourages critical reflection. This helps develop cultural safety, ethical sensitivity, and deeper self-awareness in your work.

Experiential tutorials support skill development in group facilitation, managing group dynamics, and building meaningful relationships with multiple people. These experiences will strengthen your confidence and contribute directly to your professional practice framework.

Learning Outcomes

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

1. Analyse the principles of systemic thinking, and explore how this approach supports and enhances the application of Narrative Therapy and CBT when working with families, couples, and groups.
2. Articulate a critical application of your knowledge and understanding of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Narrative Therapy within simulated case scenarios.
3. Implement a range of facilitation skills required to work effectively with families, couples and groups.
4. Critically examine your understanding of contemporary issues facing families and consider the range of interventions offered by different theoretical approaches.

Content

Learning Approaches

As well as preparing you for a career in psychology and counselling, the unit offers an interdisciplinary approach that encourages development of relational skills translatable to any setting. Emphasis will be placed on embedded experiential learning, skill development and conceptual analysis.

Weekly lectures and a tutorial program will offer practical opportunities of the application and development of a range of skills and techniques.

Lectures will be supported by additional learning materials, including pre-recorded therapy sessions, set readings, questions for reflection, and practice exercises. Lectures will be recorded and made available via Canvas.

Please note: because of the highly participatory and experiential nature of the learning and teaching process, attendance is highly recommended and attendance will be required at some tutorials in order to complete assessments. 

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

You will receive feedback in this unit through formative and summative feedback. General formative feedback will be provided via in class discussions and role plays. Summative feedback will be provided through the assessment tasks detailed below.

Assessment

Overview

Your Counselling and Facilitation Skill Portfolio will be completed in tutorials across the semester. Your Reflective Essay and Practice Plan will be submitted electronically via Turnitin.. Assessments will be marked online and your feedback will be provided on Canvas. 

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Counselling and Facilitation Skill Portfolio

You will demonstrate your developing facilitation and counselling skills through active participation in tutorials. Working in small groups, you will explore and practise six distinct skills, techniques, or processes related to working with families and groups. Your competency will be assessed in class based on your ability to apply these approaches during structured activities across the semester. Once you have demonstrated a skill during tutorials, you will write a brief reflective statement capturing what you did/said, so that you can name the skill and include it as evidence in your facilitation and counselling skills portfolio.

Assessment: Reflective Essay

You are required to complete a reflective essay based on your experiences of group facilitation during specified tutorials in which you personally participated. Your reflection should explore how you engaged with group processes through a systemic lens—considering how relationships, power dynamics, culture, and context influenced the group and your role within it.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Practice Plan

You will choose a group of people who share a common experience or background (such as a life stage, identity, or presenting issue) and develop a rationale for why a group intervention is an appropriate and effective approach for supporting them. You will write a report addressed to your supervisor, outlining your proposed plan for working with this group. In your report, you should explain how you would approach the group, drawing on relevant theories and models. You must clearly state the intended purpose of the group, describe the desired outcomes, and outline how these outcomes will be supported through the group process, structure, and facilitation strategies. 

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.

The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.

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.

Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Risk Assessment Statement

You should be aware that some content in this unit may be confronting to certain audiences. Please exercise your own discretion when participating in classroom activities or discussions and, if appropriate, advise teaching staff if you do not wish to participate. The QUT Student Counselling service is also available and free of charge to all QUT students.

Course Learning Outcomes

PY45 Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Psychology)

1. Describe and evaluate the core scientific perspectives of psychology with reference to theories, methods and research, from diverse perspectives, including first-nations perspectives.
   Relates to: Reflective Essay
2. Critically examine the scientific discipline of psychological research and theories using oral, written and digital communication to address psychological issues in a respectful, ethical and professional manner.
   Relates to: Reflective Essay, Practice Plan
3. Employ strategies for self-reflection, with regards to your conduct, values and impact on others and the profession in a culturally sensitive, inclusive, ethical and sustainable way.
   Relates to: Reflective Essay, Practice Plan
4. Develop interpersonal process skills that contribute to effective outcomes in collaboration with others, including developing innovative opportunities.
   Relates to: Reflective Essay, Practice Plan
5. Implement a range of digital capabilities to access, examine and utilise evidence-based information in the context of effectively responding to, and communicating, real world problems.
   Relates to: Reflective Essay, Practice Plan