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This course combines theory-based with applied research to focuses on the family and spirituality. A historical overview provides the circumstances that gave rise to the modern nuclear family, and the different ways social arrangements are made. The course will review on family transitions that occur across the life-span: intimacy, marriage and commitment, child- bearing and child-rearing, adoption, sibling relationships, divorce, re-constituted families, child launching in the middle-years, and aging families. Lastly, the course will focuses on sociological family matters such as class and poverty issues, raising children with disabilities, family violence and sexual abuse, relationships between parents and children and among various social contexts (nursery, school, workplace). Family counselling. The place and role of spirituality within families will be examined.

Prerequisites: IPA1121 and IPA1122.

Currents of thought in psychopathology. Mental issues in the field of human relationships and spirituality. Variables, human and spiritual, that promote and / or maintain various mental disorders such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, somatoform disorders and other problems relevant to the field of human relationships and spirituality.

Prerequisites: 24 IPA credits.

This course helps the students to develop skills for the critical evaluation of empirical research in the human sciences and the application of these skills in graduate research projects and theses. Qualitative and quantitative methods of gathering and validating scientific evidence in observation, case, evaluation, correlational and experimental studies. The formation of problems, structured questions, causal and non-causal hypotheses; operational definitions; dependent, extraneous and randomized variables; the selection of samples. Research ethics will be examined.

Concepts such as normality and abnormality, and the inter-relationship of perceptual, cognitive and affective dimensions are discussed. Motivational, social, behavioural and inter-personal components of human functioning and reviewed. This course presents the mental disorders, distinguishing the neurotic and psychotic disorders. The neuroses, transient reactions to stress, psychological factors in physical illnesses, personality disorders and affective disorders are treated in depth. Each class of disorders is viewed from the point of view of its etiology, diagnostic indicators, assessment, research and treatment. An explanation of the factors that foster an individual’s invulnerability to stress, trauma, and genetic predispositions is presented. The interplay of stressors, interpersonal and intrapersonal resources, life history and community is emphasized in the etiology and course of the disorders and normal functioning. Disordered functioning is seen as a person’s attempt to come to terms with the demands of living.

This course provides a brief overview of the history of counselling theory and its orientations and trends. It attends to the nature of theory building and its interconnection to practice and research. It presents, critically in depth, representative theories from the current major orientations (e.g., experiential, cognitive, psychodynamic, behavioural) with a focus on the integration of understanding, assessment and treatment in the counselling process. In the presentation of theories, attention is given to the integration of theory, research and practice. Each theory is discussed with reference to its practical application, effectiveness and limitations. The manner in which one or more of these theories has been applied to pastoral counselling practice and in the development of pastoral counselling models, and in the development of a person’s spiritual and religious life is covered. 

Theoretical study of individual counselling and individual psychotherapy; application of various psychotherapeutic situations, role plays, viewing of audiovisual recordings of experts in the field; effective use of self in counselling and psychotherapy; individual counselling and psychotherapy sessions with clients, including clinical supervision with psychologists or registered psychotherapists, at the Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre of Saint Paul University. Topics include active listening, paraphrasing, reflecting content and emotions, asking open and closed questions, summary, the intake interview, conceptualization of cases and writing reports and distinguishing a suicidal crisis and its appropriate responses, assessment of the client’s needs, personal and religious development, current capabilities, and circumstances of living, evaluation of the client’s emotional patterns, cognitive style, interpersonal patterns, and strategies for living along with ethical principles guiding professional practice. Graded P/F.

Challenges relating to boundary issues, client resources, psycho-spiritual assessment, relaxation and guided imagery, anxiety, depression, loss and grief, client resistance, self-disclosure, trauma, abuse, anger, diverse and multicultural populations, ending the therapeutic relationship. Graded P/F.

Prerequisite: IPA6135.

Guest lecturers will select readings and lead seminars related to relevant research topics such as proposal writing, conceptual frameworks, ethics, methods and procedures, and statistical analysis. Students must write an annotated bibliography and prepare a plan for their comprehensive exam. In addition, they must write a paper and do an oral presentation designed to facilitate their work around the thesis proposal. Evaluation by the seminar coordinator.

Introduction to the psychology of individuals, couple and family development and growth and provided knowledge of personality development over the life span. This course will review attachment over the life span, the stages of development from childhood to adulthood, and corresponding changes in family roles, as well as advanced therapeutic interventions.

The focus of this course is the critical analysis and discussion of the challenges that counsellors face in choosing and applying qualitative and quantitative methods to spirituality. In-depth study of design pitfalls that arise from the complexity and unpredictability of working with human subjects given the multi-cultural complexity of pluralistic societies. Potential topics include sampling issues, measurement issues, and special analytic techniques.

Study of a particular area in counselling and Spirituality.