IS04 Therapy Island - Overview of different methods of psychotherapy and personal change

A ten week course covering different methods of psychotherapy and personal change.

 

Course material overview

There are ten weeks, covering different methods of psychotherapy and personal change. We think of them as different places on "Therapy Island". They are:

  • Week 1 - Introduction to therapy: Intro Bridge
  • Week 2 - Short-term therapies and predicaments: Panic Woods
  • Week 3 - Addictions, cravings and recovery: Addiction Railway
  • Week 4 - Personality: Character Fair
  • Week 5 - Personality Development: Personality Circus
  • Week 6 - Psychodynamic Theories: Psychoanalysts' Camp
  • Week 7 - Schema-based Therapies: Schema Casino
  • Week 8 - Group and Systems Therapies: Group Stadium
  • Week 9 - Existential and Narrative Therapies: Narrative Theme Park
  • Week 10 - Conclusions: Therapy Zoo

To access these pages, you need to be a registered user. If you are registered, you should use the Atlas link above to navigate to Unit 4.

Aims

This 10 week, distance learning unit provides students with an overview of how concerns, values, emotional flavours, and narrative can be used to compare different practices of psychotherapy. Students will know what the aims and focus of symptomatic, short-term, motivational, and longer-term psychotherapies are, which psychotherapy traditions have made a contribution to them and what the key theoretical concepts and practical techniques of these traditions are. Finally, students will have developed a working model in which they can fit their own beliefs and practice. Learning is flexible and dynamic, taking place via webpages, discussion forums and chatroom tutorials.

Learning outcomes

  1. knowledge of the aims and focus of symptomatic, short-term, motivational, and longer-term psychotherapies and which psychotherapy traditions have made a contribution to them
  2. ability to define “personality”, to consider the benefits and shortcomings of using this term, and how it is figured in many of the great traditions of psychotherapy
  3. familiarisation with the key theoretical concepts and practical techniques of these traditions
  4. ability to synthesize a working model in which learners can fit their own beliefs and practice, and understand what concerns it particularly addresses, what values are central to it, what its likely emotional flavour is to their clients, and how their story of it fits into the larger story of psychotherapy
  5. ability to justify choice of psychotherapeutic approach to peers
  6. update of contemporary psychotherapy/counselling literature and developments in the field
  7. ability to use written expression in conjunction with appropriate academic sources and conventions to present logical analysis and argument in relation to the unit 
  8. skills in use of collaborative eLearning methods and online resources

Resources

You will not be required to buy any books, but you may want to look at the main text for the unit which is:

  • Tantam, D. (2002) Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice: A Narrative Framework. Cambridge.