Family and Relationship Counselling

This unit provides a basic conceptual framework, counselling skills and approaches for working with couples and families. The unit builds upon the individual client focus of Counselling Skills and Counselling Methods.

You are expected to integrate skills already acquired with the particular demands of working with couples and families within your workplace role.

Learning Outcomes

• Adopt a family relationship framework, which entails an understanding of the similarities and differences between individual counselling and family and relationship counselling
• Identify and summarise the main theoretical approaches to family and relationship counselling
• Apply principles of systemic theory to family and relationship counselling
• Recognise the common issues presented for family and relationship counselling, as distinct from individual counselling
• Conduct an interview with a couple
• Conduct an interview with a family
• Assess the effectiveness of counselling for families and relationships

Content Areas

• Introducing the Family Relationship Framework
• Understanding Family Systems
• Conducting an Initial Interview
• Working Systematically on Roles and Rules
• Using In-Session Strategies
• Identifying Critical Incident Problems
• Identifying Common Long-Standing Problems
• Helping Systems that are Disintegrating and Re-forming
• Counselling Sexual Issues
• Handling Issues Involving Violence and Sexual Abuse
• Counselling Cultural Diversity and Mediating
• Terminating, Referring and Developing Professionally

Unit Duration and Workload

This unit involves a total of 36 hours of face to face delivery of self directed study including educator contact in flexible delivery modes, generating a further 54 hours of self-study per unit including research and related study activities, including assessment. This translates to 7.5 hours per week for the unit.