School: Arts and Humanities

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Psychodynamic Concepts into Practice
  • Unit Code

    COU3105
  • Year

    2025
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    2
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    Ms Maureen TAN

Description

The purpose of the unit is to acquaint students with the basic psychodynamic theory of technique to enable students to appreciate the clinical foundations of psychoanalytic concepts. outline the ethical values that inform the psychodynamic approach, and to help students to gain the rudimentary ability to practice psychodynamic skills.

Prerequisite Rule

Students must pass 1 unit from COU1101

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded COU0103, COU5103

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse the conceptual relevance of psychodynamic defenses as they emerge in clinical practice.
  2. Assess the principles that are central to the psychodynamic relationship.
  3. Compare and explain the ground rules of the psychodynamic process in theory and practice.
  4. Evaluate the basic rules of free association and free-floating attention.
  5. Interpret the link between psychodynamic concepts and counselling technique.

Unit Content

  1. Assessment and case formulation.
  2. Overview: Psychodynamic counselling in the contemporary context.
  3. Recapitulation - psychoanalytic foundations.
  4. The Psychodynamic Developmental Perspective.
  5. The counselee in the psychodynamic consulting room.
  6. The psychodynamic counselling setting: Creating a projective space.
  7. The psychodynamic counselling setting: The first session.
  8. The psychodynamic counsellor.
  9. The stages of treatment.
  10. The therapeutic stance.
  11. Therapeutic action.
  12. What is psychotherapy and what is not psychotherapy.

Learning Experience

ON-CAMPUS

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 213 x 3 hour lectureNot OfferedNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

ONLINE

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, small and large group skills, experiential sessions and small and large group discussions.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
ParticipationOn-campus participation in class activities 20%
AssignmentProvide a reflective journal entry and summary of learning points from practice sessions30%
AssignmentCritically analyse a case study based on psychodynamic principles50%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
ParticipationOnline tutorial participation20%
AssignmentProvide a reflective journal entry and summary of learning points from practice sessions30%
AssignmentCritically analyse a case study based on psychodynamic principles50%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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