Doctoral Practicum Martin Weinstein, Ph.D.

Psychology 791-794 Fall, 1999

SYLLABUS

Course Objectives

The purpose of the this course is to provide support during the course of training at your practicum site. Class time will focus on (1) discussing professional issues arising during the practicum such as relating effectively with clients and supervisors, and (2) developing skills in case conceptualization and case presentation. While treatment and case management issues will be discussed, this course does not provide intensive case supervision. Any ideas or suggestions emanating from this class should be discussed with your site supervisor before being implemented. Your supervisor and you maintain clinical responsibility for your cases. However, weekly class meetings will provide time to exchange ideas with peers regarding practicum issues.

Course requirements

All students are expected to attend all class sessions. If you will be unable to attend a class or are having any other difficulty meeting course requirements, you should contact me as soon as nossible. You are expected to come to every class meeting prepared to discuss a case or issue that has arisen at your practicum site. If you present a case, you will be expected to provide background information (age, sex, ethnicity, and marital and employment status), appearance, living situation, presenting problem, brief history of the problem, history of mental health treatment, brief social history, and a summary of your work with the client to date. You should not provide identifying information such as actual client or family members' names, birthdates, or dates of assessments and therapy. Providing specific identifying information is unethical and a breach of confidentiality. The presentation should end with an issue, problem, question, or interesting observation for class discussion. If you vide~ or audiotape your sessions and get permission from your client, you may present this material to the class. As an alternative to recorded therapy sessions, role plays involving class members may be used to help clarify therapeutic issues. Although not every student will present every week, all students should be prepared to present every week.

In addition to being prepared to discuss an issue or give a brief case presentation, each student will be expected to give a formal case presentation. If your case involves therapy, I recommend you use the format used in Case ADproach to Counselin~ and PsvchotheraDv by Corey (199~. The presentation should include a diagnosis, formulation, and treatment plan. Note: A formulation is a case conceptualization, based on a particular theoretical orientation, that makes sense of the constellation of symptoms, explalns their etiology and development, and implies a treatment plan. You may use any theoretical orientation in your formulation that you can justify given the information you have presented. If your case involves psychological testing I recommend you use Psvcholo~ical Rerorts by Ownby (1997).

Finally, all students are expected to participate in discussions of other students' cases. This will give you practice in case supervision and a more active involvement in a wider variety of cases than you could see at any one practicum site.

problems (e.g., depression, conduct disorder, f~SD), populations (e.g., adult, adolescent, child), modalities (e.g., individual, group, couples, family therapy), orientations (e.g., client-centered, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic), and supervisors. Cases of a similar type can he aggregated in one grouping. You should turn this log in monthly. Before turning it in you should review it with your primary supervisor and obtain his or her signature. You should keep a copy of the log for your own records.

Work logs have a dual purpose: They will be used to insure that you receive some variety in populations, problems, and modalities throughout the course of your practica, and they will be valuable when you begin to apply for your internship.

Brooks/Cole.