Spring 2009 Electives

CPSY 590 Adolescence

January 13 - March 17
5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Instructor: Suzanne Younge
This seminar emphasizes an in-depth understanding of adolescent development, including a focus on multicultural and family factors. Students will use new information to examine their own data-bases and perhaps biases which they have gained while working with teenagers. This new information will be helpful to refine and broaden their approaches to counseling teens. There will be a strong experiential base to this course. Prior experience with adolescents is desirable but not required of the students.

This exploration will include among other areas the following topics: research on neurobiology and brain function, resiliency, youth violence, and alcohol and drug use. Prevention and treatment approaches such as mental health models in the schools, motivational interviewing and the trans-theoretical model of change will be investigated. Tips for addressing parental concerns and helping parents of teenagers bridge the gap between generations will be provided. Counselors will develop a systemic approach to thinking about, planning for and treating adolescents both individually and in a cultural, familial and community context.

CPSY 590 Integrating Spirituality Into Counseling

January 16 - March 20
2:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Instructor: Gordon Lindbloom
We will explore the ways we humans find and cultivate meaning and value in our lives based in our sense of what is most real and sacred. And we will examine ways in which each individual’s orientation to meaning/spirituality may influence her/his search for hope and healing. This will include the negative and harmful elements we so often encounter as well as the positive. Counselors can use respectful approaches to help clients understand and address critical issues that involve their most basic values and beliefs, and can help them draw on their inner and outer spiritual resources to find hope and healing.

This class will emphasize reading, reflection, dialogue, experiential learning, and case-based applications. Personal exploration and reflection will be important at every stage, and will be balanced with reaching out to explore the differing experiences of others. As now planned the first class and every other week after will focus on dialogue around the results of our reading and reflections. The in-between-week class sessions will be devoted to experiential exploration of spiritual practices that are common across many faith communities, and that can become interventions to promote growth for counselors and clients.

CPSY 590 Eco-Therapy

March 14, 15, and April 11, 12
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Instructor: Thomas Doherty
This course will provide resources and techniques for mental health providers to utilize nature activities and metaphors in their therapeutic work, address environmental concerns they may encounter during the course of counseling, and harness individuals’ sustainability values to foster therapeutic goals. We will review research and practices in ecopsychology, conservation psychology, and environmental psychology and explore topics such as environmental identity, grief and despair about environmental issues, restorative natural settings, green spaces and children, and the adoption of sustainable living practices.

CPSY 590 Theory and Practice of Dialogue

May 2 and May 9
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Instructor: Tod Sloan
Dialogue can foster everything from personal growth to deep democracy. This seminar reviews prevalent dialogue practices and the theories that help us understand them. Includes first-hand experience with a wide spectrum of dialogue practices, ranging from conversation to community organizing to public policy deliberation.

Fall 2008 Electives

CPSY 590 Community Development and Social Change

September 3 - December 10
7:00 - 9:15 p.m.
Instructor: Tod Sloan
This seminar-style course aims to link psychology and the mental health professions to the broader social movements for social justice and sustainability. We review the international emergence of a perspective known as critical psychology and establishes links between this perspective and the social theories of major figures such as Foucault, Habermas, and Deleuze-Guattari. Then we engage with a critical version of ecopsychology, building bridges between humanistic approaches and critical approaches to the relations between humans and the rest of nature. Finally, we explore the contemporary global social movements and examine productive roles for psychologists and therapists. This involves extensive reflection of strategies for social change in the current postmodern scene. Students carry out a project to design a change strategy that addresses a particular sphere in which change is needed, and present it to classmates for review and critique.

CPSY 590 Foundations of Ecopsychology

October 11, 12, December 6, 7
9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Instructor: Thomas Doherty
Ecopsychology is a contemporary movement within psychology that recognizes a connection between mental health and the natural environment and explores ways in which psychology can contribute to the solution of environmental problems. This course provides an introduction to ecopsychology practices in counseling and surveys related research-based approaches, such as environmental and conservation psychology, that study the restorative effects of natural settings and ways that individuals develop environment identities. Students will be guided toward self-reflection regarding their own environmental identity, their motivations for integrating environmental approaches into counseling, and ways to integrate ecopsychology into their existing theory and practice base. A key outcome will be learning to evaluate diverse knowledge claims that coexist under the ecopsychology paradigm. This course provides a foundation for further study in areas such as the psychology of advocacy and sustainability, eco-therapy, and wilderness therapy.

Summer 2008 Electives

CPSY 590 Wilderness Therapy Intensive

August 4 – 8
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., plus at least one overnight
Instructor: Thomas Doherty
Wilderness therapy in the 21st century can be seen as a specialized form of residential mental health treatment and can also be understood in the context of western and indigenous cultural traditions. This course will explore the application of mental health and substance abuse treatment in outdoor settings with adolescents (i.e., Outdoor Behavioral Health Care) and discuss therapeutic uses of wilderness experiences for recreation, personal growth and reflection, and athletic challenge. We will examine research on the benefits of green spaces and outdoor experiences on stress reduction, restoration of attention, enhanced self concept and sense of mastery, cognitive development, treatment of emotional and substance abuse disorders, and promotion of personal meaning. The course will have classroom and field experiences, including an overnight camping component. The course is open to counseling and education students and qualified students in other Lewis and Clark programs. The course is also open to continuing studies students and may be helpful for individuals interested in exploring the health benefits of nature and those employed in outdoor-related fields.

Course fee: $180.00

CPSY 590 The Image in Mind: Theory and Approaches Regarding the Use of the Expressive Arts in Therapy

May 9 – June 27
12:30 – 4:15 p.m.
Instructor: Peter Mortola
This course is designed for mental health practitioners interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the theory and practice regarding the use of the image in the therapeutic setting with children, adolescents, and adults. Research on the role of the imagined and expressed image in the meaning making process within therapeutic contexts will be explored. Introduction to and instruction in practical approaches and methods employing expressive arts therapies – including drawing, clay work, sand tray work, metaphor and narrative – will be a central focus of the course. Participants will attend to experience, reflection, integration and application in order to:

* Understand theories and research underlying the use of the expressive arts in therapy
* Identify cultural and personal strengths in and resistances to the use of image in the therapeutic context
* Gain a repertoire of image-based approaches for professional practice appropriate for work with children, adolescents and adults

CPSY 590 Dialectical Behavior Therapy

June 6 - 27
12:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Instructor: Cathy Moonshine
This seminar provides an emphasis on developing a detailed understanding and a foundation of the skills of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) when working with mental health, addiction and dual diagnosis clients. It is designed to empower clients to establish mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT assists clinicians in treating challenging clients with suicidal issues, self harm potential and dramatic interpersonal styles. Clients struggling with out of control emotions, low impulse control and little frustration tolerance will find relief in DBT skills. The skills and philosophical perspective of DBT focuses on these issues which results in clients reporting improvement in their lives. According to this modality, clients are doing the best they can and they need to do better while clients may not have caused all their problems and yet they are responsible for finding their solutions. In this seminar we will learn and practice skills that empower clients to do just that. DBT is a therapeutic approach that is compatible with many therapeutic modalities such as CBT, Client Centered and Strength based approaches. This course will explore the theoretical basis for this approach, specific DBT interventions and how to work effectively with challenging clients. There will be a strong experiential component that will directly apply to clinical work. This seminar will also explore our ethical obligation for self care and working through counter-transference issues. Familiarity with these techniques will enhance your clinical skills and professional development.

CPSY 590 Motivating Behavioral Change

May 9 - 30
12:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Instructor: Cathy Moonshine
This class provides a focus on behavioral change with mental health clients. We will explore how Stages of Change (SOC) and Motivational Interviewing (MI) can be used when working with mental health issues. SOC & MI are empirically validated approaches for working with a variety of symptoms and presenting presentations clients. It is designed to assist clients who are ambivalent and/or resistive to change. SOC & MI are approaches that are compatible with most therapeutic modalities such as CBT, Client Centered and Strength based approaches. This course will explore the theoretical basis for these approaches, practice of specific SOC & MI interventions and how to work with difficult and/or highly resistant clients with variety of difficulties. This approach is designed to help individuals work through his/her resistance and ambivalence to change. This course will have a strong experiential component that will directly apply to clinical work. Working knowledge of SOC & MI will increase your marketability as an intern and new counselor as well as improve your clinical skills.