FAMILY COUNSELLING BPS213

Duration (approx)100 hoursQualificationStatement of Attainment

Learn about family counselling – develop a better understanding of family dynamics.

• Learn to analyse and facilitate solutions to problems that emerge in modern families.
• Study the theories and principles of family counselling by distance learning.
• Study at your own pace with support from our excellent counselling tutors.

Please note that if you choose the ‘e-learning’ (course on USB) method, be aware that due to current covid-19 restrictions there are some countries we can not send USB sticks to.
We recommend you choose the online learning method as all online courses provide access to download course notes to access offline or print. If you do require your course to be supplied on USB stick then please contact us first to check availability for your country.

It’s easy to enrol…1Select a payment plan: Plan A: 1 payment of £355.00Plan B: 2 payments of £195.00 2Select a learning method Online : 5% DiscountE-Learning (supplied on USB Stick) 3

Study Family Counselling – understand family dynamics.

• Study Family Counselling as an introduction to a new career.
• Gain a greater understanding of problems in order to help others.
• Understand more about analysing problems and finding solutions to help families with problems that emerge in the modern world.
• Suitable for anyone working with, or wanting to work to help families, such as support workers, social workers, parents, foster carers, youth workers, counsellors, teachers and others.
• A 10 lesson course covering essential topics such as family dynamics, different family structures, family history and assessments, identifying problems, counselling, different approaches to family counselling and much more.
• Course duration: 100 hours of self-paced study.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

The 10 lessons in the course are as follows:

Lesson 1. Nature And Scope of Families

• Different Types of Families.
• Traditional Family Structures.
• Family Systems.
• Cultural Variations.
• Family Lifecycles.

Lesson 2. Family Dynamics

• Crises.
• Changing Cultures (immigrant families).
• Evolving Structures (Religion, new siblings, departing siblings, changing parents, incoming grandparents).
• Breakdowns.
• Merging Two Families.
• Abuse.
• Violence.
• Death.
• Illness.
• Changing Income (loss of job etc.).
• Disintegration and Reintegration.

Lesson 3. History

• How are dynamics different and similar today to in the past?
• How did we cope with family problems in the past in different places, cultures etc.
• What can we learn from this?
• How can we draw strength from knowing all this is not new?

Lesson 4. Identifying Problems

• Patterns.
• Critical Incidents.
• Long Standing Incidents.
• Common Problems for Families.
• Common Problems for Couples.

Lesson 5. Support Structures

• What Support Services Might Be Accessed.
• Extended Family.
• Community Services.
• Social Networks.
• Religion.
• Types Of Counselling, – individual, Group Work etc (incl. problems with Group Work) etc.

Lesson 6. Approaches to Family Therapy I

• Goals Of Family Counselling.
• Alderian Family Therapy.
• Transgenerational Family Therapy.
• Human Validation Process Model.
• Experiential Family Therapy.

Lesson 7. Approaches to Family Therapy II

• Structural Family Therapy.
• Strategic Family Therapy.
• Social Constructionist Family Therapy.
• An Integrated Approach.
• Synopsis of Approaches To Family Therapy.

Lesson 8. Conducting Initial Interviews/Sessions

• Carrying Out An Assessment.

Lesson 9. Considering Solutions

• Multicultural Family Therapy.
• Sexual Abuse.

Lesson 10. Problem Based Learning Project

• Consider a situation establish and consider alternative strategies. Select a strategy.

Each lesson is completed with in an assignment which students are to submit to the school. This will be marked by the school’s tutors and returned to the student with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

COURSE AIMS

• Describe family diversity in terms of a variety of factors including structure and function.
• Explain the interactions and motivations at work in different families.
• Describe how we have dealt with family problems in the past; then evaluate the results of these past strategies, and learn from those results.
• Determine precisely what problems exist in a family; and evaluate the relative significance of those different problems.
• Identify and compare support options that may be available to a family with problems.
• Understand what is meant by a family systems approach to counselling and describe different theoretical perspectives.
• Describe further theoretical approaches to family therapy and understand the usefulness of an integrated approach.
• Plan the initial interview for a couple or for a family, in need of counselling.
• Identify optional approaches for counselling a family or couple with problems.
• Plan a program of counselling and if relevant, other strategies, to address a family or couple in crisis.

WHAT IS A NORMAL FAMILY?

There is no such thing as “normal.”  We all have different ideas regarding relationships. In some cultures, the nuclear family (two parents, two children) is often held up as the norm, whilst in other countries the extended family is more regular. But very few people will actually have the “normal” family.

When we look at normality in terms of mental health, one of the ideas of what is normal is that it is statistically frequent. If we look at families and statistical frequency, we see differences within families. For example, these are statistics from research in 2013 by the Office for National Statistics in the UK. They found that –

There were 18.2 million families in the UK.

• 12.3 million of those were a married couple with/without children.
• 2.9 million families were opposite sex co-habiting couples.
• 1.9 million children lived with opposite sex co-habiting couples.
• 1.9 million lone parents had dependent children.

Of 26.4 million households in the UK.

• 29% of these had only one person.
• 20% had four or more people.
• The fastest growing type of household was that with two or more families, but this only represented 1% of all households.

Relationships in our families are not the only types of relationships we have, but often they are the most sustainable relationships; and when family relationships break down, they often have a deeper and wider impact than other types of relationships.

THIS COURSE CAN HELP YOU BETTER UNDERSTAND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS.

• Understand the things that can go wrong with family relationships.
• Learn and identify appropriate solutions to problems within families.

To help families in the modern world, we need a great understanding of the difficulties they face.

• If you are interested in helping families to cope with their difficulties, this course will give you a great starting point into understanding family counselling practice and theory.
• A useful qualification to learn more about family dynamics and improve your job and career prospects. Useful for CPD purposes.