PSY426 Empathy-oriented environmental therapies

Teaching language

This course is taught in Norwegian and an English translation of the course description is not available.

Course contents

Empathy-oriented environmental therapies bring together different approaches in which professionals´ sensivity of the individual's experience, thoughts and feelings will be in focus. The course will deal with the approaches of trauma-conscious care, emotion-focused therapy, mentalization-based environmental therapy and recovery-oriented environmental therapy. Common to these perspectives is the focus on understanding people's inner experiences and that this understanding forms the basis for professionals' behavior. Similarly, relationship building is an important tool in environmental therapy. It is therefore crucial to focus on the personal skills of the helper to meet individuals based on their experiences and needs. In this course you will learn how these different approaches understand people's needs and how they describe good supportive conditions. In addition, we will discuss strengths and weaknesses of the approaches, their implicit beliefs and the ethical challenges we must be aware of.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the course, the student will:

• have advanced knowledge of various environmental therapeutic approaches with empathetic focus and their application in various health and social services

• have in-depth knowledge of the importance of perceived safety and appreciative relationships for improvement processes and quality of life

• be able to identify and critically reflect on attitudes, values ​​and patterns of action in himself/herself and how he/she affects the collaboration with service recipients

• have insight into how experienced offences affect people's physical and mental health and their development

• be able to apply a practice that supports people's experience of recognition, coping and meaning

• be able to assist people through practices that promote emotional awareness and regulation, and have insight into how emotions shape the human subjective world and quality of life

• have practical skills in central environmental therapeutic interventions, including concentration support, increase perceived safety through trigger control, attentive presence and relationship building, further development of network support, and identity and opinion support

• have made ethical reflections on how our environmental therapeutic choices affect the people we work with

• be able to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of different empathic approaches and justify environmental therapeutic assessments

Examination requirements

Approved attendance in compulsory parts of the teaching.

Participation in compulsory group work that includes skills training.

Compulsory work requirement: submission and presentation of video simulation in groups.

See course brochure for further description.

Teaching methods

• Lectures

• Group work

• Skills training / simulation / laboratory

• Seminars

• Self-study

There is compulsory teaching in the course. Estimated student workload in the course is approx. 270 hours.

Evaluation

The person responsible for the course, in consultation with the student representative, decides the method of evaluation and whether the courses will have a midterm- or end of term evaluation, see also the Quality System, section 4.1. Information about evaluation method for the course will be posted on Canvas.

Offered as Single Standing Module

Yes. Subject to availability or capacity.

Assessment methods and criteria

A graded 5-hour individual written examination.