Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment Planning – COUC 667

CG • Section 8WK • 11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 09/05/2023

Course Description

Students become knowledgeable of the principles and practice of clinical diagnosis and the development of treatment plans using the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Emphasis is also placed on mental status, substance use, and risk assessment. Consideration is given to ethical, dimensional, relational, multicultural, and systemic issues important in diagnosis and treatment planning.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

The Department of Counselor Education and Family Studies is committed to preparing students who can adequately meet the demands of a world that is becoming more and more impaired by sin, dysfunction, and pathology. We desire students who can interview, evaluate, and treat clients professionally, effectively, and ethically without violating their biblical worldview and in a way that integrates that worldview into their work. The intent of this course is to prepare students for the pragmatics of their clinical work in practicum and internship environments. Christian counselors should be competent in all areas of clinical work regardless of the setting in which they work. Being able to conduct an appropriate, professional, and clinically sound interview is the basis of all counseling. Based upon the data obtained in the interview counselors must be able accurately diagnose, conceptualize, and plan a course of treatment for clients, essential skills for all counselors.

Method of Instruction: This 8 week course is delivered in a digital asynchronous format, with Canvas® as the primary instructional delivery method. Students complete one module per week over the duration of the course. 

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations/notes

The student will complete required reading and viewing of video presentations in the appropriate module according to the Course Schedule.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview. 

Advising Acknowledgement Quiz

The student will review the program handbook and licensure information by following the link within the quiz information. Once reviewed, the student will need to complete the Advising Guide Acknowledgment Quiz.

Discussions (4)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will complete 4 Discussions in this course. The student will post one thread of at least 300 words. The student must then post 2 replies of at least 150 words. For each thread, the student must support his/her assertions with at least 1 scholarly citation in APA format (in-text citations and references). Any source cited must have been published within the last five years unless it is deemed a seminal work in the field. Acceptable sources include textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, government websites, biblical sources (Bible, Bible dictionary, commentary, theological textbooks, etc). (CLOs: A, B, C, D, E, G)

During the clinical interview role-play (CIR) assignment, the student will take on 3 roles: counselor, client, and supervisor using Microsoft Teams video recording. As a counselor, the student will practice the essential counseling skills (e.g., open-ended questions, empathy, reflect emotions, probing) to collect information necessary for a diagnosis. As a client, the student will role play a case study given by the instructor. As a supervisor, the student will observe the counselor using his/her clinical interviewing skills and provide oral feedback. (CLOs: A, B)

The Case Presentation has 4 assignments associated with it. The first 3 are formative, a place to practice, clinicals skills, e.g., assessment, diagnosis, case conceptualization, and treatment planning. The 1st formative assignment is the Case Presentation Assessment & Diagnosis (C-PAD) assignment. For this assignment, the student will use the data collected from his/her clinical interview in previous weeks. The student will write up the first part of the case presentation - assessment summary and a diagnosis. This assignment is 4 to 7 pages in length in APA format, which includes a cover page, headings, subheadings, intext citations, and a reference section. (CLOs: B, C, D)

The Case Presentation has 4 assignments associated with it. The first 3 are formative, a place to practice clinicals skills, e.g., assessment, diagnosis, case conceptualization, and treatment planning.

The 2nd formative assignment is the Case Presentation Case Conceptualization (CP-CC) For this assignment, the student will use the data collected from his/her clinical interview in previous weeks to write up a case conceptualization. The case conceptualization has 2 parts, the inverted Pyramid Model and the Case Conceptualization Narrative. The Case Conceptualization is where the student moves from describing the problem (diagnosis) to understanding the problem. This assignment should be 1-3 pages in length in current APA format, which includes headings, subheadings, in-text citations, reference section. (CLOs: D, E)

The Case Presentation has 4 assignments associated with it. The first 3 are formative, a place to practice clinicals skills, e.g., assessment, diagnosis, case conceptualization, and treatment planning.

The 3rd formative assignment is the Case Presentation Treatment Plan (CP-TP)  This is the final step in the Case Presentation project for the class. The student will develop a treatment plan, based on the previous data collected, e.g,. assessment, diagnosis, and case conceptualization, that is ethically, culturally, and evidenced/theory based. The treatment plan has a number of component such behaviorally-defined problems, goals, interventions, and outcome measurements. This assignment is 1-3 pages in length in current APA format which includes the use of title page, headings, subheadings, intext citations, reference section. (CLOs: B, D, E, F)

The Case Presentation: Final is where the student will bring together his/her 3 formative assignments (Assessment & Diagnosis, Case Conceptualization, and Treatment Plan) into a final document. Over the course, the student will have received feedback via the instructor and peers. The student will take the feedback along with any other resources, e.g. textbooks, to finalize his/her Case Presentation. This assignment should be 10-12 pages in length in current APA format, which includes a cover page, headings, subheadings, intext citations, and a reference section. (CLOs: A, B, C, D, E F)

Quiz

This Dispositions Reflection quiz will ask the student to rate him/herself on the nine dispositions required for this program by our accrediting bodies using the following scale:

  • Exceeds expectations – I believe I do this exceptionally well.
  • Clearly meets expectations – I believe I am able to do this in an appropriate way as expected for graduate students at my current position in the program.
  • Adequately meets expectations – I believe I do this but could use improvement and growth in this dispositional area.
  • Does not meet expectations – I believe I do not do this well and could use improvement.

 

This quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned module: week. This quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 9 multiple-choice and 1 essay questions, and will have a 60-minute time limit.

There are a total of 6 content quizzes in the course. The quizzes are based on course textbooks, readings, videos, and other media required for each module. The quizzes are comprehensive, i.e., module 2 quiz will have quiz items from module 1; module 6 quiz may have quiz items from module 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The quizzes will cover topic such as clinical interviewing, assessment, diagnosis, case conceptualization, treatment planning, and Christian integration. The student will have unlimited attempts for each quiz. The quizzes are not timed. They can be taken repeatedly over the course. The pedagogical rationale is the student needs to have repeated attempts, "practice," in recalling and recognizing the course material for application in professional counseling and preparation for state exams for licensure.

This quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned module: week. This quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 24-25 multiple-choice and true/false questions, and will have no time limit. (CLOs: A, B, C, D, E, F, G)