Admission requirements
Only open to master’s students in Psychology with specialisation Health and Medical Psychology.
This course is offered twice a year
Description
Basic Therapeutic Skills is a course in professional skills in which the student will learn to understand and apply basic psychotherapeutic skills in a health psychological setting. Workgroup sessions consist of supervised and unsupervised meetings where students practice therapeutic skills, reflect upon the therapeutic process with other students and staff, and discuss relevant literature. A central tenet is the process of self-monitoring and reflecting upon one’s own professional development as a therapist.
Course objectives
At the end of the course, the student can:
- indicate what patients need from a psychotherapeutic relationship in order to benefit from treatment.
- apply basic therapeutic skills (such as observational skills, establishing rapport, therapeutic interviewing, handling crises) to facilitate and manage a psychotherapeutic relationship.
- critically evaluate their own therapeutic skills, attitude and behaviors.
- critically evaluate group members’ therapeutic skills, attitude and behaviors and discuss feedback in intervision groups.
- monitor and evaluate psychotherapeutic processes (such as role plays and mini-therapy), through introspection and self-reflection.
Timetable
For the timetable of this course please refer to MyTimetable
Registration
Education
Students must register themselves for all course components (lectures, tutorials and practicals) they wish to follow. You can register up to 5 days prior to the start of the course.
Exams
You must register for each exam in My Studymap at least 10 days before the exam date. You cannot take an exam without a valid registration in My Studymap. Carefully read all information about the procedures and deadlines for registering for courses and exams.
Exchange students and external guest students will be informed by the education administration about the current registration procedure.
Mode of instruction
5 two-hour lectures
2 three-hour work group sessions each week, during 7 weeks.
Full attendance is mandatory. Workgroup sessions consist of supervised and unsupervised meetings where students:
practice and obtain therapeutic skills through exercises, role plays, modelling, and mini therapy sessions;
reflect upon the therapeutic process with other students and staff, and
discuss relevant literature.
A central tenet is the process of self-monitoring and reflecting upon one’s own professional development as a therapist. Using a theoretical model for self-reflection, students will learn how to critically evaluate their progress as a therapist.
Assessment method
Assessment will be based on:
Full attendance to all workgroup sessions;
Engagement in a learning process, which implies an active participation in the workgroup sessions and a willingness to reflect on professional development; and
Written reflections on experiences in managing the therapeutic relationship and building basic therapeutic skills
Students write a final report on their professional development as a therapist, in which they will reflect on therapeutic skills obtained throughout the course, on psychotherapeutic processes, and on feedback received from group members.
The Institute of Psychology follows the policy of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to systematically check student papers for plagiarism with the help of software. All students are required to take and pass the Scientific Integrity Test with a score of 100% in order to learn about the practice of integrity in scientific writing. Students are given access to the quiz via a module on Brightspace. Disciplinary measures will be taken when fraud is detected. Students are expected to be familiar with and understand the implications of this fraud policy.
Reading list
Heaton, J.A. (1998). Building Basic Therapeutic Skills. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Additional reading will be supplied by the staff
Contact
Health and Medical Psychology
Dr. J.S Voorwinden j.s.voorwinden@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Dr I.A. Ghita i.a.ghita@fsw.leidenuniv.nl