Practice Skills 3
| Course Code | AMHW-301 |
|---|---|
| Lecture hours per week | 3 |
| Lab hours per week | 3 |
| Course Availability | Open |
| Description | This course further develops the essential practice-based skills of the helping relationship. Understanding that front line service provision is rarely done in a typical clinical setting where workers sit down with service users in a traditional one-hour format, this course teaches how to offer supportive skills based in changing dynamics, short- and long-term relationships, single sessions/moments and within various settings/environments (community, drop in, while on a walk, getting a coffee etc.). This course is divided into three distinct sections. Part one builds on previous practice-based “informal counselling skills”, drawing from various modalities (i.e. Motivational Interviewing, Feminist Re-Storying, Narrative Therapy etc.). Inherent to this section is: developing and co-creating relationship in terms of trust, safety, authenticity, and understanding; recognizing individual choice as well as systemic limitations; normalizing behaviors and skills used as methods of survival (rather than pathologizing) and expanding notions of wellness and well-being. Part two of the course builds on previous skills of self-reflexivity through various case studies and practice activities. Inherent to this section is: addressing how our role as gatekeepers in the mental health and addiction system perpetuates inequality; acknowledging and minimizing the power dynamics within a helper/client relationship through practices of consent, initiating conversations about needs and values, practicing transparency, asking for clarification, offering feedback and apologizing when we make a mistake; recognizing the importance of our own identities/experiences when clients are trying to assess their sense of safety; allow for flexibility and fluidity in modalities; and bringing our whole authentic self into practice. Part three of this course will adapt and shift thematic focus depending on emergent themes noticed in the field as well as collaboration with learners at the beginning of semester. Some possible areas of exploration will include: dual diagnosis, aging, concurrent disorders, acquired brain injury, LGBTQI2S+ inclusiveness, human trafficking, navigating systems (i.e. ODSP; OW), disabilities, tenant and landlord law, mandatory reporting, responding to traumatic loss and grief in the workplace, land-based and Indigenous approaches. This is an applied practice-based course, meaning that class time will be a mix of lecture, activity and application/practice of concepts. Attendance is very important. |