Diploma in Counselling Psychology (conducted in Chinese)
A Counselling Psychology Programme, containing 6 courses offered at Taiwan Graduate School of Pastoral Psychology by the professors and instructors.This counselling programme is designed to meet the following aims:
- To provide an educational foundation for a range of personal growth and marriage preparation in psychology and personal career;
- To provide specialised studies directly relevant to individual daily life issues and professions in which students are working or intend to become a counsellor/marriage therapist in the future;
- To enable students to make an immediate improvement in personality and family relationship;
- To provide flexibility, knowledge, skills and motivation as a basis for personal development and as a basis for progression to graduate and postgraduate studies for helping profession;
- To develop students self-improvement and interpersonal relationship through effective use and combination of the knowledge and skills gained in different courses of the programme;
- To develop a range of skills and techniques, personal qualities and attitudes essential for successful performance in daily life.
The Diploma course comprises six subject units of study. The subject units are as follows:
Introduction to Psychology
This module introduces the major approaches of the contemporary psychology and their developments, emphasizing the application of psychological knowledge into daily life and personal growth.
Counselling Theories and Practice
This module introduces the major theories and practice of counseling, and applying then into personal self-awareness, personal growth and helping others.
Family Life Cycle and Personal Development
This module introduces the major approaches of the development psychology through life span, emphasizing the application of psychological knowledge into daily life and the promotion of personal growth.
Helping Skills in Counselling
The focus of this module is to assist the student in developing effective helping skills. The basic components of helping relationships will be discussed. They will also practice basic helping behaviors through role-plays, in class workshops, and videotaped interviews in order to develop their expertise and mastery of the skills discussed.
Marriage and Family
This module contains an exploration of theories and research on marriage and family relationships and related issues. The course includes information on gender, dating, basic concepts of marriage and family, affairs and divorce, family system, and an exploration of marital relationships and intervention of spouse and partner abuse. There is an emphasis on empirically supported theories and therapeutic interventions.
Independent Study
Since psychology is life, the student after taking a series of counseling psychology courses will have to try to apply what they obtain in mind into daily life as well as the interaction with others. Life is an experience, the experience in being alone and in interacting with others, including the individual’s cognitions, emotions and behaviors. This module is designed to stimulate students to experience being himself/herself and his/her interacting with others, including family members, colleagues, friends and intimate partners. The students will be required to write down the incident of his awareness in personal change or his turning point resulted from conflict with others each time as a home assignment in each class. The tutors will lead the class divided into small groups to have discussion on the shared individual experience and each student’s thought. Besides, the psychological tests on individual, love and sex, marriage and family, and interpersonal relationship will be administered by the tutors to the students in each class. The results of the test will be revealed and discussed in the next class. The tutors will according to the test results tend to the students who need special assistance and refer them to the helping professionals for help.
Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to:
- Utilize helping skills to address personal problems and enable effective interpersonal relationship;
- Understand fundamental counselling concepts, key areas of applied psychology and set a more satisfying life goal;
- Understand the nature and issues of human behaviour and family relations;
- Demonstrate helping skills.
Course Schedule
| Total Duration: | 9 months (Full-Time) 12 months (Part-Time) |
| Total Course Hours: | 288 |
| Weekly time-tabled hours (teaching): | 15 |
Teacher-Student Ratio
Beacon maintains a maximum teacher-student ratio as follows:
Tutorial – 1:40
Lecture – 1:72
Certification
Candidates who successfully complete all 6 modules of this programme will be presented with a Graduation Certificate awarded by Beacon International College.
Entry Requirements
Students should normally satisfy the following minimum academic requirements:
- At least Grade C6 in any three (3) GCE ‘O’ Level subject or equivalent qualifications
- HSK Level 4 or equivalent qualifications
Lectures/Tutorials
The course is mainly conducted in the classroom via face-to-face learning which encourages student-teacher interaction. Students are encouraged to attend field trips and bazaars organised by the school to encourage experiential learning.
Assessment
The course will be characterized by both lectures and task-based activities. A student-centred approach will be employed to produce positive results. Emphasis will be placed on short presentations, focused exercises, role-play, student-interaction, pair-work, student tasks, continuous assessment, projects and test.
