Course Coordinator: Dr Matthew Doherty
Phone: +61 8313 4340
Email: matthew.doherty@adelaide.edu.au
Level 9, AMHS, North Terrace

Student & Program Support Services Hub
Email: askhealthsc@adelaide.edu.au
Phone: +61 8313 0273

1	Outline knowledge of the underlying theories and core concepts of key approaches to family and relationship counselling;
2	Critically appraise research studies related to the clinical application of various approaches to family and relationship counselling;
3	Demonstrate an understanding of family systems, structure, developmental stages and changes through class discussions and written assignments;
4	Analyse and apply a variety of techniques and approaches to family and relationship counselling; these may include systems, experiential, developmental, cognitive-behavioural, emotion-focussed, narrative and integrative models;
5	Demonstrate practical knowledge of common counselling issues that are presented by families and couples, through class discussions and written assignments;
6	Recognise issues of cultural and other diversity in the formation of families and relationships;
7	Appropriately apply intervention skills for working with families and couples to resolve relationship difficulties, through a written assignment;
8	Appraise resources to support continuous learning regarding family and relationship counselling.

An important component of this unit is regular reading and reflection, intended to clarify and expand on material covered in class.

Required textbooks
Goldenberg, H., & Goldenberg, I. (2013). Family therapy: An overview (8th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole - Cengage Learning.

Long, L. L., & Young, M. E. (2007). Counselling and therapy for couples (2nd Ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.

Links to required background readings will be made available to participants via MyUni.

Brown, J. H., & Brown, C. S. (2002). Marital therapy: Concepts and skills for effective practice. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

McGoldrick, M., Carter, B., & Garcia-Preto, N. (2010). The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family, and social perspectives (4th Ed.) Pearson Education.

Shaw, E., & Crawley. J. (2007). Couple therapy in Australia: Issues emerging from practice. Kew, VIC: Psychoz Publications.

Rhodes, P., & Wallis, A. (Eds.) (2011). A practical guide to family therapy. Structured guidelines and key skills. Melbourne: IP Communications.

Copies of readings (relevant journal articles) will be made available via MyUni.

A range of videos and Youtube clips will be recommended for students to study

MyUni
All students enrolled in a postgraduate coursework program have access to a Postgraduate Coursework Student Centre on MyUni. This course is available on MyUni at www.adelaide.edu.au/myuni/. Please check the website regularly as it may contain announcements that are relevant to your study in the course.  Weekly lecture notes will be provided via MyUni. Links to literature that supports class discussions and assignment preparation will be available via MyUni.
If you would like the opportunity to network with other students, you can use the Communication features in the site
Send Email – This feature enables users to send email to fellow students.
Group Pages – Groups enable Users to collaborate with each other. Groups usually consist of a smaller group of Users in a course or organisation, such as study groups or project groups. From a Group Page, users may send email, exchange files, enter discussion forums or enter collaboration sessions.
Please note that you also have access to individual MyUni sites for EACH course you are enrolled in. Please check the sites regularly as they may contain important announcements that are relevant to your study in the course.

Access Adelaide
Access Adelaide is the name of the online service that allows you to access and, in some cases, amend your records. It can be found at: https://access.adelaide.edu.au/sa/login.asp
You can log into Access Adelaide to view: -
- your enrolment details for any term
- your academic results
- your unofficial academic transcript
- your personal details
- the fees, charges and payments on your University account
- your graduation eligibility details.
As a student you can: - change your address and telephone details (please inform the School as well)
- change your password
- set a password clue to help you remember your password.

Student email
It is important that you set up your student email and check it regularly. Information from your course coordinator and student administration will be sent to you at your University of Adelaide email address. It is your responsibility to check your email. You will need your student number located on your student card to log in. http://webmail.adelaide.edu.au/

Computers
Where can I use a computer in the University?  Computing facilities are provided to students by the University, and there are
several suites of computers available, including at the Barr Smith Library and in Hub Central. The University web site has a list of computer labs at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/technology/yourservices/learning-teaching/student-suites/

Internet access
The University provides a free dial-up service to students without the need for a commercial ISP account. This service is available at the cost of a local call to students residing within Adelaide (please refer to your telecommunications provider for confirmation of call costs). Students residing outside these numbers can dial into the University at STD call rates (www.adelaide.edu.au/its/desktop/dialup/). Postgraduate Coursework students will receive a University Funded Quota of 500Mb.

This course will be an experiential and interactive one, with 12 weekly (2.5 hour) sessions, including didactic sessions, small group and large group discussions, and role playing of introduced skills. The lecturers will use illustrations from their own work and case summaries presented by students, along with structured exercises and group discussion, as a way of supporting participants to engage with the various models of practice. Students will be exposed to a variety of approaches, with an emphasis on their connecting the learning to their own work and areas of interest and preferred counselling modalities, to develop their own ways of working in this area of practice. The didactic and other face-to-face sessions will be supported by readings and videos, and assessments designed to assist integration of learning and development of skills.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.
The course comprises two and a half hours every week, of lecture, seminar and small-group discussions. Sessions will be seminar/workshop format, with a mixture of lectures and interactive exercises, and it is compulsory for all students to attend. Essential readings or on-line video material will be recommended.

Face to Face lectures and practicals: 2.5 hours / week
Core/background readings: 6 hours / week
Preparation of assignments: 4 hours / week .

Session1: Course overview and introduction to Family Therapy Course overview; Introduction to course texts, readings and key journals. Introduction to family and relationship counselling.

Session 2: Family Development Theory/ Stages This workshop will explore family development theory and encourage reflection on personal family dynamics.

Session 3: Family systems theory: Multigenerational (Bowen), Communications/Humanistic, Object relations & Structural An examination of different iterations of family systems theory.

Session 4: Family assessment & therapeutic planning A look at various methods of assessing family dynamics and planning therapeutic intervention.

Session 5: Counselling work with families-therapeutic alliance, complexities, ethics A broader view of therapeutic work in the family context.

Session 6: Working parents and adolescents An examination of therapeutic work with adolescents and their parents.

Session 7:Relationships counselling An introduction to working therapeutically with couples.

Session 8: Psychodynamic couples & family counselling An introduction to psychodynamic tools in working with families and couples.

Session 9: CBT and SFT couples & family counselling An introduction to using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Solution Focussed Therapy in family and couples counselling.

Session 10: Integrative Behavioural Couple Therapy & Emotion Focussed Therapy An introduction to Integrative Behavioural and Emotion Focussed Therapies with families and couples.

Session 11: Presentations of collaborative videos (Assignment 3) of skills role-plays; student facilitation of class discussion and peer assessment. Student groups will present their work based on assignment three.

Session 12: Review and revision Tying everything together and developing a session plan.

Assumed Knowledge: Counselling Skills 1 & 2, Theories of Counselling & Psychotherapy, or equivalent

Restrictions: Available only to Counselling and Psychotherapy students, or with permission of the Course Coordinator

Students will be required to work in a number of smal group situations in which they explore various aspects of therapy with families. Details of these activities will be explained during class time.

Assessment Task	Task Type	Weighting
Written Assignment 1	Personal reflection on own family system.	Summative 25%
Written Assignment 2.	Critical analysis of two couples counselling approaches	Summative 35%
Assignment 3	Group video presentation and class discussion.	Summative 30%
Participation		Summative 10%

Students are advised to comply with word limits for written assignments, and time limits for the group video and discussion. A 10% leeway on either side is acceptable.

Written assignment 1 (25%): Word limit – 2,000
Family system analysis – relating multigenerational and developmental theory to student’s family of origin.

Written assignment 2 (35%): Word limit – 2,500
Critical analysis of two approaches to couples counselling, applied to a fictional case.

Assignment 3 Group video presentation (30%): (Presented in class)
Collaborative course review project presenting an aspect of learned material:

Participation (10%):
Assessment by instructor. Assessment of class participation is based on consideration of the student’s attendance record, their ability to manage time (in terms of attendance and assignment submission), their engagement in developing and fostering group norms for the class, their willingness to offer questions in class, engagement in small-group discussions and learning tasks, their respectful and professional engagement with peers and staff, evidence of their tolerance with peers and clients, and their ability to modify behaviour in response to feedback from peers or staff.

Further instructions and marking templates for all assignments will be provided via MyUni.

Details will be made available on MyUni.