Clinical Skills: practitioner and lived experience perspectives (919C8)

15 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

This module introduces the therapeutic practice of clinical psychology from two key perspective; clinical psychologists ('practitioner perspective') and their clients ('lived experience perspective').

The module explores the experience and generic skills involved in talking to people about their mental health problems and facilitating recovery, from each of the two perspectives. This will be followed by a consideration of the therapeutic relationship, the skills involved in and the experience of assessment, and the skills involved in and the experience of formulations.

We'll also consider the well-being of others who are involved with the therapeutic encounter - the practitioner and informal caregivers.

Each topic will draw extensively upon the experience of the practitioner and the client to reflect upon key issues for recovery from mental health problems.

Questions may include:

• How does one talk and hear about experiences that are distressing
• How important are the non-clinical and generic aspects of relationship-building?
• What should influence the pace of assessment and formulation?
• How does the practitioner use supervision to reflect upon the well-being of themselves and other caregivers?

Each topic will also underpinned by a consideration of appropriate theories and models of therapeutic relationships, assessment and formulation, and supervision.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 20 hours of contact time and about 130 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.