2. Background & Rationale
● Counselling Theory and Practice is designed to provide
students with a thorough grounding in the historical,
philosophical, and theoretical bases of major schools of
counselling and psychotherapy, including psychodynamic,
humanistic-existential, cognitive-behavioural, and postmodern
approaches.
● Students will not only be exposed to the theory underlying
these counselling schools, but also have opportunity to learn
and practice specific processes and skills associated with
each framework.
● In addition this unit will focus on evaluating the strengths,
limitations, and evidence-base of the major approaches to
counselling, as well as their potential application with diverse
groups of clients
3. Learning outcomes
At the end of the course students will be able to:
1. To develop a holistic understanding of counseling as
a tool for help;
2. To acquire knowledge of various approaches, their
theoretical underpinning for goals, values,
processes, and techniques;
3. To develop skills of application to real life situations;
4. To develop the ability to recognize and synthesize
attitudes and values that enhances investment of
self in the counselor’s role
5. To develop the ability to use the tools/scales in
various settings.
4. Unit I Introduction to
Counseling:
● Meaning, definition, and scope of Counseling
● Differentiating Guidance, Counseling and
Psychotherapy – Contexts - Remedial, Preventive,
Developmental, Crisis – Forms
● Telephone Counseling
● Crisis Counseling
● Vocational Counseling - Goals – Immediate and
Long term.
5. Unit II Theories of
Counseling:
● Psychoanalytic / psychodynamic theories,
● behavioral theories,
● humanistic theories, and
● existential theories.
7. Unit IV
Counseling
Skills and
Techniques:
Skills - listening and responding, handling emotions and problem
solving;
Techniques – initiating contact (rapport), establishing structure,
interaction, attending behavior, observation of nonverbal
behavior, narrative and verbatim.
8. Unit V
Counselor-Counselee
Relationship:
● Personality factors of Counselor Importance of
self-awareness; communication patterns, body
language, feedback
● Factors influencing the relationship -transference
and countertransference
● Professional Ethics in Counseling ethical practices
and standards for human service-professions, ethics
to counseling - professional guidelines
