Counseling Psychology (MA) Program

Course Descriptions

Foundations and Epidemiology of Mental Health and Illness

The course will explore theories and definitions of mental health and illness.  The course will review evidence for these theories.  The factors that affect mental health and illness will be reviewed in the context of these theories.  The course will also explore methods of documenting mental health and illness on a community scale, including epidemiological and reporting methods.

Community Mental Health Techniques—Mental Health Education, Consultation and Crisis Intervention

Community mental health initiated a preventive, early intervention orientation to mental health problems which includes the need for public education, the importance of mental health consultation to the school and community, and crisis intervention, a short term modality suitable for anyone experiencing a disequilibriating response to a normal life crisis, such as divorce, death, etc.  In this course these intervention strategies will be studied and experiential class exercises will be utilized to augment theoretical learning.

Systems Theory

Systems theory involves an orientation to the gestalt of any system in which human beings find themselves.  Open systems theory is the origin, and evolutions from this basic theory—two main theories of systemic intervention—will be taught: Schein’s culture of organizations model and Lindemann-Caplan’s mental health consultation model.  Experiential exercises will be utilized to augment theoretical learning.

 

Updated 10/1/07