Advanced Counseling Skills & Techniques

PREREQUISITE:  None

The Advanced Counseling Skills and Techniques course is an experiential course that builds upon fundamental skills, focusing on culturally sensitive interventions, major counseling approaches, and evidence-based practices. Students develop through role-playing, case studies, and video feedback, as well as practicing skills such as active listening, reflection, summarizing, and advocacy. The course also addresses ethical and legal considerations, crisis intervention, and the integration of these skills into a personal, integrative approach. Procedures related to the practice of individual, group, and family counseling are examined.

UPON COMPLETION OF THE COURSE, THE STUDENT WILL BE COMPETENT IN:

• Applying and integrating therapeutic techniques from various models of counseling.
• Demonstrating the ability to establish collaborative and therapeutic goals with clients.
• Explaining and understanding the differences between basic and advanced counseling skills.
• Comprehending advanced reflecting skills, including reflecting on present experiences, transference, projection, and resistance.
• Understanding appropriate self-disclosure while building rapport and normalizing a client’s experiences, with an understanding of professional boundaries.
• Demonstrating crisis intervention skills, including proficiency in triage, referral, and advocacy during situations of crisis such as suicidal ideations, grief, and trauma.
• Recognizing, understanding, and responding to clients who have experienced trauma and abuse.
• Analyzing the importance of ongoing learning, supervision, and consultation to ensure professional and personal growth beyond the curriculum.
• Demonstrating skills in working with diverse populations by integrating an awareness of cultural factors, identities, and unique considerations into counseling strategies.
• Assessing difficulties in the areas of addictive behaviors, depression, suicidality, and/or homicidal and violent behavior.
• Comprehending and learning how to provide clear and constructive feedback to peers and to accept and implement feedback from supervisors and colleagues for their own professional development.
• Describing and analyzing the ethical, professional, and legal issues involved in counseling practice.
• Applying principles of ethical decision-making to the counseling environment.
• Evaluating and demonstrating the appropriate use of techniques associated with selective alternative and emerging therapies.
• Demonstrating techniques for various contexts, such as individual, group, couples, family, and telehealth counseling.
• Illustrating the ability to create SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, which ensures clarity, allows for progress tracking, and aligns with the overall project vision and client expectations.
• Evaluating how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used in professional counseling to assist both clients and therapists, and understanding that it is not a replacement for essential human elements such as empathy, intuition, and clinical judgement.

ACQUIRED SKILLS:

• Theoretical Integration
• Culturally Competent Counseling
• Crisis Intervention Skills
• Case Conceptualization
• Active Listening Skills
• Empathy
• Rapport Building
• Treatment Planning
• Understanding Transference & Countertransference
• Progress Notes & Documentation
• Ethical Practice