Irish Association of Holistic Medicine

 

The Diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy

 

 

CERTIFICATE  (First Year)  PROGRAMME

 

Provides a training in how to work with people in a holistic way to draw out their potential and inner resources.  Suitable for team leaders, social workers, human resource personnel, youth workers, parents, teachers, doctors, nurses or other health care professions, holistic or complementary therapists, or all whose work, either paid or voluntary, involves them in counselling, motivating, empowering or communication with other.  The course includes personal holistic development and philosophy, counselling skills, stress management techniques, etc.  Selection to the course is by interview.

 

Psychotherapy

Exploration of the main approaches to psychotherapy illustrated with case studies and discussion of the practical applications to the students’ own work. This section of the course is taught through experiential learning and extensive practice and role play in the class situation.

Humanistic Psychotherapy I -Person Centred Counselling Skills: Focuses on the work of Carl Rogers and on the practical counselling and psychotherapy skills based on Rogerian principles. Topics include: Nature of the psychotherapeutic relationship; building rapport; active listening; reflecting feeling and content; empathy; verbal and non-verbal communication skills; observation and identification of body language; use of open and closed questions; clarifying and sorting issues; summarising; use of immediacy; confrontation; empowering the client; creating and maintaining positive mental states e.g. relaxation, confidence.

Family Dynamics I: An introduction to the work of Virginia Satir. Characteristics of nurturing versus dysfunctional families. Dysfunctional communication patterns. Developing authentic communication.

Neuro Linguistic Programming I: NLP was derived from the pioneering work of Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls whose theories and techniques are studied in more depth in the 2nd year of the course. Topics covered include accessing and developing resourceful states of mind and programming your mind for success. We emphasise a caring, holistic approach to NLP that focuses on helping the individual maximise their potential.

Solution Focused Brief Therapies I: In this section we focus on effective future-oriented approaches to brief psychotherapy including the work of Steve de Shazer and others. Topics covered include identifying client’s resources rather than deficits, negotiating effective goals, and looking for what’s right rather than what’s wrong.

Behaviour Modification I: Introduction to the main principles of cognitive behavioural therapy and its application in parenting skills, relationships and self-development. Topics include: The principles of classical and operant conditioning, social learning theory and modelling and behaviour modification techniques for removing phobias and anxieties.

 

Psychology I
Scope of psychology, outline of history and methods, explanation of terms.  Methods of research in psychology.

Life Span Development: The developmental tasks of infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age. Practical work including workshops devoted to facilitating the development of parenting skills.

Personality Theory: Understanding how our personality is formed and maintained over time has direct relevance for the process of change. An outline of the three main models i.e. the psychodynamic, humanistic, and behavioural/cognitive and their implications for therapy.

Stress Management: The stress response and the role of stress in illness. Psychological factors in health and illness, secondary gain, the role of patient and practitioner expectations. Personality profiles in different illnesses. Assessing stress levels and measuring change. Coping skills and maximising resources. In this section of the course, each trainee has to submit a written presentation of a two-day stress management seminar.