s
Title
Code
Level
Credit rating
Pre-requisites
Type of module
Aims
Complex Presentations in Psychotherapy
SS701
7
20
Postgraduate Diploma in Psychodynamic or Humanistic
Therapeutic Counselling or equivalent professional
qualification
Extensive over one Semester
To:
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Learning
outcomes/objectives
To locate conceptualisations of mental illness and
psychopathology within the field of psychotherapy
To enable the student to develop the knowledge and
competencies necessary to assess when clients with
complex presentations are, and are not, available to
engage in psychotherapeutic work.
To develop competencies, when appropriate, for
intervention with clients with complex presentations
by drawing on a range of theories and models.
To enable the student to develop a critical
understanding of the role of psychotherapy within
broader mental health systems.
On successful completion of the module students will be
able to:
1. Provide a critical epistemological account of the
differences between psychiatric and
psychotherapeutic paradigms.
2. Provide critical accounts of the aetiology of a range
of common complex presentations.
3. Demonstrate a capacity to liaise effectively with
psychiatric services.
4. Demonstrate a critical understanding of his/her limits
of competence working a client with serious mental
health difficulties.
5. Demonstrate the capacity to intervene with
confidence in relation to assessment and the
management of referrals to other health
professionals
6. Demonstrate the capacity, where appropriate, for
therapeutic intervention with complex presentations
in clients.
7. To assess and differentiate the responses of shock,
trauma, bereavement and emotional emergency
from severe mental illness.
Content
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Teaching and learning
strategies
Learning support
History of mental health perception with particular
reference to culture and gender
Assessment
Diagnostic criteria
Managing referrals
Contemporary understandings of developmental
psychopathology
Disturbances of the boundaries of self
Psycho-somatic manifestations
Protocols for working with self-harm and suicide
Psychosis: psychiatric and psychotherapeutic
perspectives
Psychopharmacology
Working in partnership with other health
professionals
Resilience and its links to psychotherapeutic
intervention
For those students without a professional
background that has provided them with the
experience of being in the presence of
clients/patients who have been diagnosed with a
severe mental illness, a brief psychiatric placement
will need to be undertaken (please refer to the
‘Mental Health Familiarisation Placement’
document). The need or otherwise to undertake
such a placement will be considered on an individual
basis.
Formal inputs of theory and principles supported by
guided reading;;
Case Discussions;
Working inductively from experiences encountered in
practice;
Students led presentations.
Tutor support from module team
Peer learning
Courses Resources Officer
Core Texts:
Bott, D and Howard, P (2012), The Therapeutic
Encounter: A cross-modality approach, Sage
Publications.
Briggs, S; Lemma, A; and Couch, W (2008), Relating to
Self Harm and Suicide: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on
1
Practice, Routledge.
Freud, S. (1914). On Narcissism. The Standard Edition of
the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud,
Volume XIV (1914-1916): On the History of the PsychoAnalytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and
Other Works, 67-102.
Kernberg, O.F. (1970). Factors in the Psychoanalytic
Treatment of Narcissistic Persona... J. Amer. Psychoanal.
Assn., 18:51-85.
Kohut, H. (1966). Forms and Transformations of
Narcissism. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 14:243-272.
Kernberg, O (2004), Aggressivity, Narcissism, and Selfdestructiveness in the Therapeutic Relationship, Yale
University Press.
Kohut, H. (1968). The Psychoanalytic Treatment of
Narcissistic Personality Disorders—Out... Psychoanal. St.
Child, 23:86-113.
Kohut, H. (1972). Thoughts on Narcissism and
Narcissistic Rage. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child.
27:360 - 400.
Laing. RD (1990), The Divided Self: An Existential Study
of Sanity and Madness, Penguin. .
Leenaars, AA (2004), Psychotherapy with Suicidal
People: A Person-centred approach, Wiley-Blackwell.
Sperry, L and Carson, J. (1996), Psychopathology and
Psychotherapy: From DSM-IV diagnosis to Treatment,
London: Routledge.
Assessment tasks
Brief description of
module content and/or
aims (maximum 80
The production of a 3,000 word reflexive account which
articulates the student's understanding of the role of
psychotherapy, including its limitations, in the
alleviation of the distress associated with complex
presentations. This will take the form of a critical
synthesis and be informed by both their psychotherapy
practice as well as from the experience of being in the
presence of clients/patients who have been diagnosed
with a severe mental illness (L.O 1 – 7).
By adopting a position of critical realism with regard to
mental illness, the module will provide students with
the opportunity to locate psychotherapeutic work
2
words)
Area examination board
to which module relates
Module
team/authors/coordinato
r
Semester offered, where
appropriate
Site where delivered
Date of first approval
Date of last revision
Date of approval of this
version
Version number
Replacement for previous
module
Field for which module is
acceptable and status in
that field
Course(s) for which
module is acceptable and
status in that course
School home
External examiner
within historical and contemporary discourses of mental
health. Students will gain the knowledge and
experience necessary to differentiate between those
clients who can respond to psychotherapy and those
who will be most effectively helped by other mental
health professionals. Students will develop a range of
competencies for working with complex presentations
that are deemed suitable for psychotherapeutic work.
Counselling and Psychotherapy Examination Board
Pam Howard (module leader)
Lynne Mansfield-Osborne
Semester 2
Falmer
18th April 2012
1
MSc Psychotherapy - Mandatory
School of Applied Social Science
Alex Coren (to 2015) and Ros Sewell (to 2015)
3
4