Medical Sciences - University of the West Indies

FACULTY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
Person-Centred Counselling Skills. Case studies
are used to develop insight into the practical application
of Counselling theory. The course ends with
a detailed critique of Person-Centred Counselling in
which research findings on efficacy are explored and
the wider applications of Person-centred Counselling
in families, groups, educational and other institutions
are discussed.
Course OG61B: Group Counselling: Personal
Growth Groups
This course explores the application of Person-Centred
Counselling Theory to Group Counselling with
specific references to Personal Growth Groups.
The course begins with a description of types of Personal
Growth Groups such as T. groups, Encounter
Groups, Marathon Groups and Systematic Human
Relations Training. The goals and verbal and nonverbal
techniques which are used in such groups are
then presented. Leadership, group development,
group dynamics, communication and counselling
skills utilized in these groups are then discussed.
The course continues with practical information
on how to organize and evaluate these groups and
ends with a discussion of the professional issues,
ethics and criticisms which have to be considered in
using such groups, and wider applications to special
populations.
Course OG61C: Professional Issues Part I
This course is designed as a series of seminars in
which various presenters will be initiating a discus-
sion of professional issues which are of concern to
counsellors. Students are required to attend 80%
of the classes on Professional Issues which will be
delivered by teleconferencing. The course begins by
examining the ethical, legal and professional development
issues which counsellors confront in their
practice. Models for ethical reasoning and codes of
ethics from various cultures are discussed in order
to lay the foundation for the development of a West
Indian code of ethics to guide Counsellors in individual
and group counselling. The course then seeks
to help counsellors in training to explore their own
reactions to different, and, in some cases, socially
proscribed groups by looking at the problems facing
these groups. The course then ends by looking at
the role of the counsellor as a change agent in West
Indian societies.
Course OG61D: Existential Counselling
Existentialism is a philosophical approach to counselling
rather than a method of counselling. It has
been included in the programme because it encourages
counsellors to grapple with life and death issues
and concerns inherent in human existence
which clients often bring to the counselling situation.
Accordingly, this course begins with an introduction
to Existential Counselling in which some of the main
assumptions and themes of this approach are discussed.
The therapeutic relationship is then highlighted
followed by a detailed exploration of writings
by existential psychotherapists and other existential
authors on psychotherapy. Emphasis is given to
the practical application of existential philosophy in
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