IllinoisSchool of Professional Psychology

Argosy University/Chicago Campus

MA Community Counseling

PC6410 Practicum Seminar

Section: BLB CRN: 7259

Summer II 2007 & Fall I 2007

Faculty:Tsui-yee Chow, Ed.D.

Phone: 1 312 777 7679

Web-Augmented Activities:

Summer II: the week of July 2 to the week of August 12

Fall I: the Week of September 4 to the week of October 21

Meeting Dates:Every other Tuesday at 6-8:45 p.m., starting from

Summer II: July 10, July 24

August 7, August 21

Fall I: September 11, September 25

October 9, October 23

Overview

The Practicum Seminar is a semester long course (two terms) which provides a forum for students to optimize learning, increase counseling acumen, and deepen self-awareness during the training experience. The seminar, like the training experience itself, will be highly experiential. It emphasizes not only the student’s ongoing professional growth in skills and knowledge, but also the ongoing formation and development of the person behind the counselor-in-training.

Our focus will be sensitive to, and emerge from, the particular clinical and professional concerns that each student experiences as he/she interacts with supervisor and the supervisory process, client and the counseling process, agency staff, and group process, etc.

The goal of the seminar is to ensure that each student, at the conclusion of the practicum experience, will demonstrate diagnostic, psychotherapeutic, and professional/ethical competency and is sufficiently prepared to enter his/her first post-graduate supervised experience upon completion of all other requirements of the MA in Community Counseling.

Objectives

Students will:

  1. Be knowledgeable about the criteria of effective treatment planning, and be able to develop systematic and effective treatment strategies with reference to students’ personal style, theoretical orientation, and clients’ characteristics, and their respective mental health issues;
  2. Develop the capacity to conduct a course of counseling according to the framework of one’s practicum setting in a reflective, systematic, and responsive manner;
  3. Have a deeper and broader understanding of the theory and practice of counseling; including case formulation, and the application of various theoretical orientations to individual cases;
  4. Increase understanding and ability to apply DSM-IV-TR, and other assessment strategies and considerations in diagnosing clients of diverse backgrounds;
  5. Be able to observe and articulate (a) personal reactions to a client, and (b) the effects of your behavior and other reactions on the client and on other aspects of the interaction between yourself and the client;
  6. Be provided a forum to examine and critique one’s own work and the work of others in a meaningful way; and
  7. Be able to write clear, concise, and relevant reports of counseling process and content.

Course Format

The seminar course is designed to be responsive to students' practicum experiences and concerns regarding their clients and their practicum sites. Thus, open discussion will be an important component of the class. Moreover, in order to enhance students' development as a counselor, different teaching modalities may be used: discussion of the reading assignments and theme of the week, role play, case studies and presentations, and other relevant experiential activities.

Required Text:

Russell,-Chapin, L. A., & Ivey, A. E. (2004). Your supervised practicum and internship: Field resources for turning theory into action. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. ISBN: 0-534-60615-6.

The Practicum/Internship Training Manual 2007-8 (will be provided by the Associate Director of Training for Counselor Education)

Recommended Text

Seligman, L. (1998). Selecting effective treatments: A comprehensive, systematic guide to treating mental disorders. (rev. ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

ISBN: 0-7879-4307-X.

Berman P. S. (1997). Case conceptualization and treatment planning: Exercises for integrating theory with clinical practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.ISBN: 0761902155

Course Expectations and Requirements:

  1. Class Attendance

You are expected to attend this seminar regularly in keeping with professional and ethical responsibilities. Moreover, your presence and active participation are integral and essential to the success of this class. Your feedback in class, and sharing of your practicum experience are most valuable to your classmates. For foreseeable and necessary absence, it is important to notify the instructor prior to class. You may only be absent from one group and one individual supervision session for the entire semester. You will be required to make up any further absences; failure to do so will automatically cause you to receive an “incomplete” grade and you will need to resolve this “incomplete” as quickly as possible so as not to jeopardize moving on to your internship experience.

B.Online Activities, ParticipationLeading Discussions

  • During the weeks of no class meeting, students are expected to complete an online assignment that corresponds to that week’s readings or theme. Online activities begins with Summer II term, the week of July 2, and ends in Fall I term, the week of October 22.
  • Ground rules for online participation and instructions for the first week’s activities and assignments will be posted online the week before.
  • The format of these online assignments and activities varies. Basically, students will be asked to respond to two small activities or two discussion questions per week.
  • As a general rule, week cycles begin on Tuesdays and end on Mondays. Each Monday, new instructions for the online activities of the following week will be posted.All postings and responses to the discussion or the activities should be posted before Saturdays, mid-night, so that your classmates will have Sunday and Monday to read and respond to your postings.
  • To receive full credit for that week’s assignment, students will provide both one thoughtful posting of their own in response to the online activities, and two thoughtful responses to the comments of other students. Students’ online performance will be assessed according to the qualities of their responses to both the activities and to other students.
  • Some of the characteristics of quality communication and feedback include: meaningful statements with context and content, constructive and respectful criticism or arguments, and clear expression relevant to the issue under discussion
  • Online participation in a timely manner is a form of class attendance. Student financial aid may be affected by when you last participated online.

C. University Individual Supervision

In addition to practicum seminar meetings, students are required to participate in individual or triadic (two students at a time) supervision, for an average of one hour per week, with a core faculty member or a doctoral student who is under direct supervision of a core faculty member. Students will participate in this weekly individual supervision sessions until they successfully complete all the requirements (both field experience and university requirements) of the practicum experience, and attain the approval from the practicum leader or the Associate Director of Training to conclude the individual supervision sessions.

Compared to seminar meetings, which emphasize group discussion and sharing of perspectives and experiences, individual supervision stresses the individual counselor trainees’ developmental needs, refinement of counseling skills, in-depth discussion of client issues, and personal reflections. Thus, individual supervision is an intense and personalized experience which provides the counselor-in-training a forum to review progress/case notes, to listen to tapes, and to ask specific questions regarding their performance and issues related to the clients. In order to facilitate the attainment of these goals, students are expected to be prepared for the individual supervision sessions. When attending an individual supervision session, you should have:

  1. summary of progress/case notes of various clients ready for review/discussion
  2. specific segments of taped sessions selected for listening and discussion;

3. specific thoughts on case conceptualization and treatment formulation; and

4. questions (the areas that you are struggling with, or have doubt; about performance,

alternative treatment issues, etc) ready for discussion and consultation.

Important Reminder:

  1. Do not include any client’s identifiable information in your notes; and

2. Always be mindful of the whereabouts of your counseling notes and tapes at

all times.

  1. Tape Presentation & Presentation Reports (See Guidelines Below):
  2. Practicum Portfolio (Details will be announced later)

Evaluation

Based on the Practicum/Internship Manual, 2007 – 2008, seminar leaders assess students’ progress on a continuous basis via their interaction during seminar meetings, communication with the site supervisors, and review of site supervisor evaluations. Individual supervisors will assess students through individual supervision sessions. Both individual supervisors and seminar leaders will conduct a formal evaluation at the end of practicum. This evaluation form is located in Appendix B in the Practicum/Internship Training Manual.

At the end of the practicum, seminar leaders, based on the evaluations by the individual supervisor and site supervisor, will assign grades to students’ practicum: Credit (CR), for students who perform satisfactorily at both of their practicum sites, practicum seminars, and university individual supervision; No Credit (NC), for those students who do not perform satisfactorily in practicum seminars or/and at the practicum sites; and an “I” for incomplete for students who have not submitted all the necessary paper work or assignments by the end of the semester. The seminar leaders will also collect and submit all the required documents listed in the subsequent section to the Association Director of Training for filing.

Documents to be submitted to seminar leaders by the end of practicum are:

  • End of Practicum Total Hours Log
  • End of Practicum Site Supervisor Evaluation Form
  • End of Practicum Individual Supervisor Evaluation Form
  • Practicum Portfolio which includes the Practicum Case Report, the Self-Appraisal Paper, Student’s Perception of the Practicum Site Supervisor, & Student’s Evaluation of the Practicum Site.

Criteria for Successful Completion of Practicum and Conditions to Proceed to Internship

Practicum seminar leaders and the Associate Director of Training will determine whether students should proceed to Internship, and start to accrue internship hours. Students will not be allowed to begin internship unless they successfully complete their practicum with the fulfillment of the following:

  • Hourly requirements (a minimum of 100 hours, 40 direct and 60 indirect hours)
  • Passage of seminar leader evaluation
  • Passage of individual supervisor evaluation
  • Passage of site supervisor evaluation
  • Completion and passage of the Practicum Portfolio
  • Submission of all the required documents as listed in the above section from all related parties with appropriate signatures within 2 weeks of the end of practicum

Policy Statements

Disability Statement:

It is the policy of Argosy University/Chicago to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations to complete the instructor’s course requirements, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedure for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodation will be provided to students upon request.

Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. It is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor in order to receive the requested accommodation in class. In an effort to protect student privacy, Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors.

Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism Statement:

The University seeks to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity. Any work submitted by a student must represent original work produced by that student. Any source used by a student must be documented through normal scholarly references and citations, and the extent to which any sources have been used must be apparent to the reader. The University further considers resubmission of a work produced for one course in a subsequent course or the submission of work done partially or entirely by another to be academic dishonesty. It is the student’s responsibility to seek clarification from the course instructor about how much help may be received in completing an assignment or exam or project and what sources may be used. Students found guilty of academic dishonesty or plagiarism shall be subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal from the University.

Technology Statement:

ArgosyUniversity encourages the use of technology throughout the curriculum. This course uses the following: Internet, email and videotapes.

MA Community Counseling

PC6410 Practicum Seminar

TAPE PRESENTAION & PRESENTAION REPORT GUIDELINES

In rotation with other seminar members, each student will present audio- or video-taped clinical material from his/her practicum setting. You must bring a tape that you have previewed prior to seminar presentation. All voices must be audible. Inaudible tapes brought in for seminar presentation will not be acceptable. If taped sessions are not available at the time of presentation, students can verbatim part of the counseling session, and provide the class copies of the transcript for the presentation.

Guidelines for Taped Presentations (30 minutes):

Part A: Client’s Information

*** The student who is presenting his/her clinical material on a particular date is responsible for also supplying each student and the faculty with the following, typed information about the client:

1.Client’s identifying information: Sex, age, social class, race/ethnicity, religious or spiritual affiliation, relational status, sexual orientation, occupation, education, current living situation including description of family constellation at the time of the session. Omit all proper names. Protect the confidentiality of the client. Write this out in narrative form.

2. Presenting problem: Symptoms, anxieties, moods, difficulties in personal, relational,

educational, and/or occupational situations and activities at the time of the initial assessment; overt reason(s) for seeking help at that time; and referral route to the counselor.

3. Relevant behavioral observations: Salient aspects of physical appearance and

mannerisms, as well as observations of significant interactions with you and others during the course of your work together (or this session). Relevant observations might include the client’s apparent state of health, estimate of intellectual and cognitive functioning, physical coordination, affect, indications of distress, and any oddities or peculiarities in the client’s behavior, and physical make-up.

4. Relevant and Developmental history: Tell us what we need to know about this

client’s personal and psychological history, so that we are informed about the most essential and important aspects of his or her past and present life situation (i.e., what significant events have occurred in his or her life that are talked about on the tape and how did those events impact the client’s development psychologically). You may also want to include the client’s medical history and medication used currently or in the past –such factors may affect his/her psychological status and levels of functioning.

5. Diagnostic assessment: Give a five axis DSM-IV-TR diagnosis for this client, or case

appropriate assessment. You do not need to write out all the qualifying symptoms to support your assessment.

  1. Transcript/Verbatim of part of the counseling session if tape is not being used for the

presentation

Part B: Verbal Presentation

1. Case Conceptualization/Formulation:

Based on a chosen theoreticalperspective or integrative approach, provide a brief explanation of the client’s issues presented in this particular counseling session as well as the client’s overall functioning. Moreover, provide a brief narrative of your understanding of these issues from a developmental perspective (psycho-bio-socio-spiritual). With reference to both developmental and theoretical explanations of client’s behavior, state the related clinical issues.

2. Treatment Formulation:

Based on the client’s presenting problem, and your understanding of the client’s clinical issues both theoretically and developmentally, state your overall goals of treatment for this client. Articulate the specific foci or objectives of the taped session in relation to the overall goals of the treatment, and specify the techniques or counseling strategies which you use in order to achieve these particular objectives for this session.

3. Presentation of the Tape/Transcript & Invitation of feedback from the class.

Guidelines for the Presentation Report:

A three-page report is due the following Tuesday after the taped/transcribed presentation (Submit to Dr. Chow via e-mail at ) . You can integrate feedback and suggestion in your report which should address the following:

1.Case Conceptualization/Formulation: based on any chosen theoreticalperspective, or integrative approach, provide a brief explanation of the client’s issues presented in this particular counseling session as well as the client’s overall functioning. Moreover, provide a brief narrative of your understanding of these issues from a developmental perspective (psycho-bio-socio-spiritual). With reference to both developmental and theoretical explanations of client’s behavior, state the related clinical issues.

2.Treatment Formulation:

Based on the client’s presenting problems, and your understanding of the client’s clinical issues both theoretically and developmentally, state your overall goals of treatment for this client. Articulate the specific foci or objectives of the taped session in relation to the overall goals of the treatment, and specify the techniques or counseling strategies which you use in order to achieve these particular objectives for this session.

3.Critique:briefly describe your strengths and weakness as a counselor in the conduction of the session. Also, address the coherence of your interventions with the client material and with your theoretical formulation of the client. Also, briefly address your understanding of why a particular intervention or a particular counselor-client interaction was therapeutic/counter-therapeutic.

4.Reactions to client/client reactions to you: identify client and therapist personal reactions

to one another and how these impeded or enhanced the counseling. Also discuss whether cultural factors might have played a role in the dynamics of your relationship and patterns of interaction with your client.

5.Summary of ongoing treatment recommendations:briefly describe your current treatment recommendations, along with current diagnostic uncertainties, as well as additional/alternative intervention strategies.

6.Presentation Experience: briefly describe your experience of presenting in our seminar group.

ISPP-ArgosyUniversity Chicago/MACC/Practicum Seminar/Summer II & Fall I 07/Syllabus/Chow p.1