COURSE NAME: Master S Practicum I

COURSE NAME: Master S Practicum I

COURSE NUMBER: PP 6201

COURSE NAME: Master’s Practicum I

TERM:Fall 2008

INSTRUCTOR:

Leah Horvath, Ph.D.

PHONE:

312-777-7681

EMAIL:


FAX:

312-777-7748

ALT PHONE:

REQUIRED TEXTS: NONE

This Course Requires the Purchase of a Course Packet: YES NO

ArgosyUniversity

COURSE SYLLABUS

PP6201-6202

Master’s Therapy Practicum Seminar

Faculty Information

Faculty Name: Leah Horvath, Ph.D.

Campus: Chicago

Contact Information:

Phone: 312-777-7681

E-Mail:

Office Hours: By Appt.

Short Faculty Bio:Dr. Horvath is the Associate Chair of the Clinical Psychology Program at ArgosyUniversity, Chicago. She received her MS and PhD in Clinical Psychology from The University of Kentucky, with a focus on cognitive-behavioral treatments and clinical administration. She has specialized clinical training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – including completing her pre-doctoral fellowship in the DBT program at the Yale-NewHavenPsychiatric Hospital. Dr. Horvath completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the University Counseling Service at New YorkUniversity, where she specialized in the treatment of individuals with eating disorders. Her clinical areas of interest involve working in college mental health, working with adults with eating disorders or histories of trauma, and working from a DBT or mindfulness-based treatment approach. Her research interests include issues in romantic relationships, personality theory, and therapy outcome research.

Course description:This one year practicum provides supervised clinical field experience. In addition to the required hours working at the assigned training site, students enrolled in practicum meet weekly in a practicum seminar led by a core faculty member. The overall practicum experience includes assessment and intervention experience.

Course Pre-requisites: All practicum prerequisites as outlined in the training manual

Technology: Pentium III CPU/ Windows 98; 128MB RAM printer; Microsoft Office: Acrobat (full version); Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 (PC), 5.0 (MAC), or Netscape Navigator 4.08; Norton Antivirus.

Course length: 30 Weeks

Contact Hours: 37 Hours

Credit Value: 6.0

Program Outcomes:The Master’s Program in Clinical Psychology has been designed to educate and train students to enter a professional career as MA level practitioners.ArgosyUniversity, Chicago provides students an educational program with all the necessary theoretical and clinical elements that will allow them to be effective members of a mental health team. The program introduces students to basic clinical skills that integrate individual and group theoretical foundations of applied psychology into appropriate client interactions and intervention skills

In addition, the Program offers excellent preparation for those considering application to the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology.

Course Objectives:The general focus of this seminar will be to facilitate development of each participant's therapeutic intervention skills and therapeutic style. The seminar will provide each participant with opportunities to explore and discuss one's developing identity as a psychotherapist including case conceptualization, managing reactions to clients, setting appropriate boundaries for the therapy relationship and the therapy setting, areas of specific strengths and weaknesses, and the general issues, struggles, successes, etc., that one encounters at this point in one's training.

Specifically, emphasis will be placed on developing skills necessary to accomplish the following goals:

  1. develop and enhance personal/ professional skills used in creating a therapeutic alliance;
  2. establish a therapeutic alliance that builds a foundation for a broader and deeper clinical process.;
  3. enhance knowledge and application of assessment and therapeutic intervention skills;
  4. develop a capacity to recognize and work with the impact of relevant contextual factors including gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation on the client's experience of the therapeutic process;
  5. facilitate one's capacity for self-reflection and the ability to recognize the role of the interactional process on the course of therapy;
  6. understand the client conceptually in a cognitive-behavioral orientation and develop an appropriate treatment plan the integrates your understanding of the client and cognitive-behaviorally based interventions;
  1. develop a capacity to prepare relevant written clinical assessments that effectively integrate the various aspects of your client's presentation and that thoroughly describe the causes and maintaining factors of the client’s presenting issues; and,
  2. increase awareness of diversity issues (our own and that of others) as these influence and impact the clinical treatment process.

The overall focus of our listening process will be to attend to client communications. Together, we will attempt to understand the factors that contributed to the development and maintenance of the client’s presenting issues, as well as other factors that may not be directly stated by the client, but that are also limiting the client’s functioning in the world. Important areas of focus in our work together will include 1) the client's personal history and current experiences, and 2) the situational contexts that surround the treatment framework. On this foundation we can consider how best to formulate relevant, effective interpretations and interventions.

Seminar format: The therapy seminar meets weekly for the fall and spring semesters and summer 1. The majority of class time will be used for the presentation and critique of the therapy tapes. There will be some didactic presentations and discussion on clinical interviewing and case conceptualization, treatment planning and intervention and ethical issues.

Attendance to the seminar is mandatory. In the instance of an unforeseen absence, the student should notify the instructor the day of the missed seminar meeting.If any student misses more than one seminar during the course of a semester, they will be required to make up that time at their own expense, or receive a grade of “No Credit”.

Participants will present audio tapes of a therapy session each semester for group discussion. Each group member will be asked to present his/her material twice during each semester, in non-consecutive weeks, on the dates assigned to each respective seminar participant. Please prepare a typed transcript of each session with copies to distribute to each member of our group. Although it may not always be feasible or desirable, you are requested (to try) to present the same client during both the Fall and Spring semesters so that the unfolding therapy process is available for review.

Readings: There will be some reading materials on reserve in the library. Students will be responsible for reading these materials by the assigned date, as there will be class discussion on the readings.In addition, each student will have the responsibility for selecting and presenting a journal article or book chapter of her/his choosing. Dates for the student articles and the reading listed below will be discussed in the first class meeting.

Barnett, J. E., Baker, E. K., Elman, N. S., & Schoener, G. R. (2007). In pursuit of wellness: The self-care imperative. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 38(6), 603-612. (Full-text online)

Chu, B. C. (2007). Considering culture one client at a time: Maximizing the cultural exchange. Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy, 3(3), 34-43. (Full-text online)

Dean, R. G.,Rhodes, M. L. (1992). Ethical-clinical tensions in clinical practice. Social Work, 37(2), 128-133. (Full-text online)

Koerner, K.(2007). Case formulation in Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder. In T. Eells (Ed.) Handbook of psychotherapy case formulation (pp. 317-348). New York: Guilford.

Miller, W. R., & Brown, S. A. (1997). Why psychologists should treat alcohol and drug problems. American Psychologist, 52(12), 1269-1279. (Full-text online)

Persons, J. B., & Tompkins, M. A.. (2007). Cognitive Behavioral case formulation. In T. Eells (Ed.) Handbook of psychotherapy case formulation (pp. 290-316). New York: Guilford.

Assignments:

1. In order to facilitate preparation for the CEC, seminar participants will complete a written assignment in both the Fall and Spring semesters which will follow the complete Therapy CEC requirements. These written assignments will be due two (2) weeks following your case presentation in the seminar and will require you to analyze relevant clinical data following CEC category guidelines.

  1. Please include in your CEC analysis a written patient-therapist- patient interaction for which you have an idea about a more effective therapist response. Prepare this alternative intervention that conveys a more empathic or useful response than the one initially offered to your client. It is hoped that preparing such "armchair responses" will allow you to practice what you might have said or what you might say in the future, as your awareness of and attention to relevant communications and sensitivity to effective interventions continues to develop.
  1. In addition, each group member is required to provide 1 article that pertains to therapeutic interventions. These articles may be general in nature or they may be selected because they bear upon the particular treatment issues or personality characteristics of the client who you will be presenting. Please do not select topics that are already covered in the reserve readings. Please bring these articles to the seminar and distribute them the week before your presentation.

Advisement: An individual meeting will be scheduled with each seminar participant to discuss your experience of and progress within the seminar. In addition, we will take time to discuss such general advisement issues as registration, graduation or continuing education, and any other issues of interest to you.

Seminar Performance Criteria:

Seminar participants will be expected to demonstrate:

1. an ability to establish a therapeutic alliance, an ability to make a human (humane) connection with patients, to articulate your understanding of the individual's described experience, his/her presenting problems and treatment hopes/goals, and to validate the client’s experience;

2. an understanding of one's impact on one's clients, including your reactions to your client and the client’s response to you;

3. a working, flexible ability to explore with the client the antecedents and consequences of specific behaviors, and the link between client’s thoughts, actions, and emotions;

4.an ability to make effective interpretations that are based solidly on material presented by the patient and cognitive-behavioral theory. Interpretations are expected to extend the range and depth of understanding the patient has about their own internal experiences and behaviors;

5.an ability to review patient response to therapist interpretations and interventions with particular attention to how "successful" or "unsuccessful" such interpretations are;

6. such basic therapeutic capacities as warmth, sensitivity to patient suffering, neutrality, empathy, and awareness of diversity issues in the therapy setting; and,

7. participate in seminar discussions of each therapy session and offer insightful and sensitive feedback to the presenter as well as observations about the possible meanings of the clinical material presented.

CEC Requirements: You may select a child, adolescent or adult client for your CEC tape. Please use a standard size audio tape that is clear. If you use a micro-cassette, please be aware that you will need to provide the micro-cassette player as well. There are many types of therapy sessions that both therapist and patient consider meaningful and successful. In some such sessions, the patient comes to some central insight or understanding in the absence of any current therapist interventions.

However, for the CEC it is essential that you select a tape for a session in which you can demonstrate your competence with respect to responding empathically, validating the client’s experiences, and formulating and understanding of the development and maintenance of the client’s difficulties, as well as your ability to formulate effective interventions. Although the cases you submit for the two practice CEC’s will be presented in our seminar first, be sure that for your final CEC you select a session hour on which you have not received supervision.

Additional specific guidelines with respect to CEC evaluation criteria will be distributed in the seminar. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the CEC evaluation guidelines provided by the Department of Training. As an overview, sophisticated conceptual analysis of all relevant therapeutic interactions, articulate writing and excellent organization of ideas will distinguish the superior CEC. In this case, both the tape selected and the written assessment of the clinical hour will demonstrate your mastery of the skills central to meaningful psychotherapy. If the analysis is well-done but the tape selected does not demonstrate your skills with respect to listening and interpreting client communications, you will be asked to Revise your CEC and submit a second tape with relevant written analysis.

If your tape demonstrates adequate treatment skills, but the written assessment merits additional development, you will be asked to Revise the written portion of the CEC. If the tape and assessment submitted indicate inadequate mastery of the skills emphasized within the seminar, you may be asked to Resubmit both portions of the CEC. If skills demonstrated suggest significantly less than adequate mastery of the seminar material, a participant could receive a non-passing grade. In such an instance, the student may be required to do remedial therapy seminar work. Any intervention will be planned with the Training Department.

Library Resources: ArgosyUniversity’s core online collection features more than 21,000 full-text journals, 23,000 electronic books and other content covering all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Career & General Education, Computers, Engineering & Applied Science, Humanities, Science, Medicine & Allied Health, and Social & Behavior Sciences.All electronic resources can be accessed through the library’s website at User IDs and passwords are distributed during orientation, but can also be obtained at the circulation desk, calling 312-777-7653, or by e-mail at .

In addition to online resources, ArgosyUniversity’s onsite collections contain a wealth of subject-specific research materials searchable in the Library Online Catalog. Catalog searching is easily limited to individual campus collections.Alternatively, students can search combined collections of all Argosy University Libraries. Students are encouraged to seek research and reference assistance from campus librarians.

Information Literacy: ArgosyUniversity’s Information Literacy Tutorial was developed to teach fundamental and transferable research skills, including selecting sources appropriate for academic-level research, searching periodical indexes and search engines, and evaluating and citing information. In the tutorial, students study concepts and practice them through interactions. At the conclusion of each module, they can test their comprehension and receive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Please view the tutorial at

Academic Policies: Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, ArgosyUniversity requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition (2001). WashingtonDC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the ArgosyUniversity catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism.

Scholarly writing: The faculty at ArgosyUniversity is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” ( an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language.

Americans with Disabilities Act Policy: It is the policy of ArgosyUniversity to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request.

Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor. In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner.

The ArgosyUniversity Statement Regarding Diversity: ArgosyUniversity prepares students to serve populations with diverse social, ethnic, economic, and educational experiences. Both the academic and training curricula are designed to provide an environment in which students can develop the skills and attitudes essential to working with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Top View