COUC 667 Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment Planning

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.

The Department of Counselor Education and Family Studies is committed to preparing the student who can adequately meet the demands of a world that is becoming more and more impaired by sin, dysfunction, and pathology. We desire to enable each student to interview, evaluate, and treat clients professionally, effectively, and ethically without violating his or her biblical worldview and in a way that integrates that worldview into his or her work. The intent of this course is to prepare the student for the pragmatics of his or her 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, the counselor must be able accurately diagnose, conceptualize, and plan a course of treatment for clients, as those are essential skills for each counselor.

Method of Instruction: This 14-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. 

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. 

Discussions (3)

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). (CLO: A, B, C, D, E, G)

Video Discussion: Clinical Interview Role-Play (CIR)

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. The student will upload the video to the Discussion thread. Then, the student will reply to two other students’ videos. Each reply must be at least 150 words and include 1 scholarly citation in current APA format. (CLO: 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 first 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. (CLO: 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. (CLO: 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. (CLO: 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. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E F)

Quiz: Professional Development

The student will indicate one goal for your professional development in the area of diagnosis and treatment planning this semester. The quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 1 essay question, and have no 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: Week. The quizzes are comprehensive, i.e., one quiz will have quiz items from one Module: Week, whereas another quiz may have quiz items spanning multiple Modules: Weeks. 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. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E, F, G)

Quiz

This quiz will cover the Learn material from 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.