BSc (Hons) Guidance and Counselling (Kaplan, Singapore)

Building on research understanding and skills developed throughout your programme, this module will introduce you to key ideas, perspectives and activities in social research relevant to guidance and counselling. You will develop knowledge and understanding about what and how things can be ‘known’ (epistemology), ways of seeing the world (paradigms), approaches and traditions in research (methodology), collecting or generating data (methods) and analysing or interpreting findings (analysis). In addition, you will understand how to relate each of these elements into a coherent research project and will appreciate relevant ethical issues that apply to your research.

This module explores theories of career choice and development and how these are used in career guidance practice with young people and adults. In this module you are encouraged to develop insight into a range of multi- disciplinary models of career choice and development and consider their relevance to current practice in the UK (both in schools and in in a range of settings for all ages). You will have the opportunity to further develop and apply important guidance and counselling skills in the context of careers work. You will undertake formative assessments which allow you to practice and further develop guidance skills. The summative assessment will involve planning and delivering a career guidance intervention, for example a career guidance interview or a group activity, and written commentary, drawing upon career development theory.

Within this module you will develop the knowledge needed to support practice when working with older people. You will develop a critical understanding of key theoretical perspectives on ageing, with a focus on life course perspectives. You will also explore current, global, debates on ageing and develop the ability to apply underpinning knowledge to counselling practice when working with older people.
Within this module you will explore the realities of aging in society from the perspective of older people. As part of this module you will also explore a range of issues that may impact on older people and influence their engagement with guidance and counselling services.

You will explore the theory and practice of a range of brief approaches drawn from differing theoretical and critical perspectives. In this module you will develop knowledge and critical understanding of three types of brief counselling approaches as used in guidance and counselling settings: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Solution Focused Approaches and Motivational Interviewing. You will develop understanding of the theoretical background to the approaches and implications for practice. This may involve working in situations where you will think about issues that some people face, such as anxiety and depression, as well as behaviours which may prove problematic, such as substance misuse.

In this module you will develop knowledge and critical understanding of three types of narrative practice used in guidance and counselling: personal construct psychology, existential therapy and narrative therapy. You will develop understanding of the ways in which the lives of individuals, families and communities are shaped by the stories they tell about themselves, and of ways in which identities can be enriched and strengthened or hurt and diminished depending upon the sorts of stories that are told and who is recognised as having the right to tell stories. In exploring these three types of therapeutic intervention, you will gain insight into how different types of listening conversations can be used as opportunities to allow people to think about how damaging stories can be rejected, and different meanings and preferred storylines can lead to more positive, accepting outcomes. You will gain insight into the view that the person is never the problem, but that the problem is the problem: and find creative ways of working with people in to support them to think differently about problems. As well as learning about the theoretical bases of each of these approaches, you will participate in workshops and seminars where you will have the opportunity to begin to put them into practice. This may involve working in situations where you will consider ideas about subjects including loss, bereavement, death, modern power, or where you will learn about counselling individuals, couples, family groups and communities.