MTU Psych & Counselling · Year 2

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Year 2 · Semester 1

Counselling Skills Application 1 COUN6011
View on Akari · MTU Canvas · Rubric
▶
5 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
In this module students will learn to apply and reflect upon their use of counselling, helping and interpersonal communication skills in peer relationships. They will learn to draw upon some of the principles and practices of counselling, helping and interpersonal communications skills as they engage in practice sessions with peers. They will be facilitated to use experiential learning to reflect upon and learn from this experience. Formative assessment and feedback occurs across the semester. Students receive regular feedback on progress in class.

What you'll learn

  1. Use some of the principles and practices of counselling skills to enhance their interpersonal communication and helping experience.
  2. Develop helping relationships that offer contactful, empathic attunement to the client
  3. Conduct an independent counselling interview with a peer
  4. Observe and manage their own personal process and its impact on the helping situation
  5. Keep a skills application journal to describe, reflect upon and analyse the experience of the use of counselling skills.
  6. Review their counselling and helping skills application experience and appraise their strengths and weaknesses in the helping setting.

Assessment

Practical/Skills Evaluation · 70% · Every Second Week
Counselling skills application
Reflective Journal · 30% · Every Second Week
Counselling skills application journal
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.

Recommended reading

Hammond, D.C, Hepworth, D.H., & Smith, V.G.. (2002), Improving therapeutic communication: A guide for developing effective techniques, Wiley, [ISBN: 9780787948061].
Mearns, D., Thorne, B., & McLeod, J.. (2013), Person-centred counselling in action, 4th. Sage, [ISBN: 9781446252529].
On this site
Counselling Skills in Action (Stafford & Bond) — A practical guide to core counselling skills, built around a three-stage model (Beginning, Middle and Ending) with aims, plans and skills for each stage, plus common issues, self-care and a full case study.
Essential Counselling & Therapy Skills (Nelson-Jones) — Richard Nelson-Jones's practical taxonomy of counselling and therapy skills — what to actually do and say in a session.
Improving Therapeutic Communication (Hammond/Hepworth/Smith) — A clinical interviewing text — the skills of empathic, structured therapeutic communication across the helping professions.
People Skills (Bolton) — Robert Bolton on the interpersonal skills of assertiveness, listening and conflict management — a foundational communication text.
Person-Centred Counselling in Action (Mearns/Thorne/McLeod) — The classic person-centred text — Rogers's core conditions, the six necessary and sufficient conditions, and how the approach looks in the room.
Person-Centred Counselling Training (Mearns) — Dave Mearns on training person-centred counsellors — the developmental tasks, the trainer's stance, and the pitfalls of instruction.
The Skilled Helper (Egan) — Gerard Egan's problem-management and opportunity-development model — the three-stage helping framework used across counselling training.
Counselling Skills Development 1 COUN6013
View on Akari · MTU Canvas · Rubric
▶
5 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
This module will enable students to develop and practise the intermediate level skills in counselling and helping. Students will complete a review and commentary on their practise counselling sessions. Formative assessment and feedback occurs across the semester. Students receive regular feedback on progress in class.

What you'll learn

  1. Create a therapeutic relationship that offers contactful, empathic attunement with the client
  2. Use relevant counselling skills - tracking, reflecting and exploring to facilitate the client to process their experience
  3. Receive and use feedback in a non defensive and insightful way
  4. Offer feedback to other group members in an insightful and appropriately sensitive manner.
  5. Show awareness of and capacity for reflection on their own process and manage themselves appropriately during the skills training .
  6. Write a competent process commentary on the counselling practise sessions, taking account of the experience of the client, the counsellor, the process and the relationship

Assessment

Practical/Skills Evaluation · 70% · Every Second Week
Counselling practise assessment
Written Report · 30% · Every Second Week
Written process commentary on practise sessions
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.

Recommended reading

Hammond, D.C., Heworth, D.H., & Smith, V.G.. (2002), Improving therapeutic communication : A guide for developing effective techniques, Wiley, [ISBN: 978-0787948061].
Mearns, D, Thorne, B., & McLeod, J.. (2013), Person-centred counselling in action, 4th. Sage, [ISBN: 9781446252529].
Siegel, D.. (2010), The mindful therapist: A clinician's guide to mindsight and neural integration, W.W Norton & Co., [ISBN: 9780393706451].
On this site
Therapeutic Presence (Geller & Greenberg) — A focused course on the therapist's 'presence' — the quality of attentive, embodied, receptive availability that research shows is the bedrock of good outcomes. Built from Geller & Greenberg's model of how presence develops and what gets in its way.
Betrayal of the Body (Lowen) — Alexander Lowen's The Betrayal of the Body is the founding text of Bioenergetic Analysis — the idea that the body holds the history the mind forgets, and that reclaiming bodily aliveness is the route to real change. This is a trainee-therapist course: ten plain-English modules that turn Lowen's ideas into clinical signs, anonymised vignettes, and practices you can use in the room — faithful to the book, with no personal content.
Counselling Skills in Action (Stafford & Bond) — A practical guide to core counselling skills, built around a three-stage model (Beginning, Middle and Ending) with aims, plans and skills for each stage, plus common issues, self-care and a full case study.
Essential Counselling & Therapy Skills (Nelson-Jones) — Richard Nelson-Jones's practical taxonomy of counselling and therapy skills — what to actually do and say in a session.
Improving Therapeutic Communication (Hammond/Hepworth/Smith) — A clinical interviewing text — the skills of empathic, structured therapeutic communication across the helping professions.
The Mindful Therapist (Siegel) — Daniel Siegel on interpersonal neurobiology and the therapist's own embodied, mindful presence as the heart of effective therapy.
Person-Centred Counselling in Action (Mearns/Thorne/McLeod) — The classic person-centred text — Rogers's core conditions, the six necessary and sufficient conditions, and how the approach looks in the room.
Person-Centred Counselling Training (Mearns) — Dave Mearns on training person-centred counsellors — the developmental tasks, the trainer's stance, and the pitfalls of instruction.
Cultivating Therapeutic Presence (Geller) — Shari Geller's practical, embodied guide to cultivating therapeutic presence — the therapist's attuned, moment-to-moment way of being. Companion to the Geller & Greenberg text.
The Skilled Helper (Egan) — Gerard Egan's problem-management and opportunity-development model — the three-stage helping framework used across counselling training.
Working at Relational Depth (Mearns & Cooper) — Mearns & Cooper on relational depth — the therapy relationship at its most profound, meeting the client's worldview with congruence and presence.
Ego State Application COUN6015
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▶
5 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
In this module students will be introduced to the application of the transactional analysis theory of Ego States in the wider society, in their own life experiences and in the counselling situation.

What you'll learn

  1. Apply the structural, functional and transactional models of Ego States to his/her own life experience
  2. Analyse his/her own developmental experience using models of Ego State development.
  3. Describe and review his/her experience of Ego State Contamination and Blending.
  4. Describe and review his/her experience of bringing Ego States into awareness and integrating them.
  5. Describe and analyse introductory elements of group process.

Assessment

Written Report · 20% · Week 10
Group Process Analysis
Project · 80% · Sem End
Written project on Ego State application
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.

Recommended reading

Ian Stewart, Vann Joines. (2012), TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis, Lifespace Publishing, Nottingham, [ISBN: 9781870244022].
Richard C. Schwartz. (1997), Internal family systems therapy, Guilford Press, New York, [ISBN: 9781572302723].
Jay Earley. (2012), Self-Therapy, 2nd. Pattern system Books, CA, [ISBN: 9780984392773].
On this site
TA Today (Stewart & Joines) — The core textbook for your TA module. Stewart & Joines' TA Today is the standard introduction to Transactional Analysis — ego states, transactions, games, scripts, and the stroke economy. These modules break the book into plain-English, illustrated lessons you can study a few minutes a day.
Games People Play (Berne) — Eric Berne's classic on the transactional games people unconsciously repeat — the scripts, rackets and pastimes of everyday relating, in TA terms.
Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (Berne) — Eric Berne's foundational book on transactional analysis as a system of psychotherapy. Ego states, transactions, games and scripts, written for clinical practice.
TA: 100 Key Points (Widdowson) — Mark Widdowson's TA: 100 Key Points and Techniques distils contemporary Transactional Analysis into 100 sharp, practical points across seven parts — approaches, the therapeutic relationship, diagnosis, contracting, treatment planning, and more. These summaries condense each part into a faithful, plain-English map you can study a few minutes a day.
Internal Family Systems Therapy (Schwartz) — Richard Schwartz's IFS model — the mind as a family of parts, the burdened protector and exiled child, and the Self that leads. Chapter summaries for trainees.
Self-Therapy (Earley) — Jay Earley's step-by-step IFS guide for working with your own parts — a trainee-friendly entry to the model Schwartz founded.
Ego State Theory COUN6016
View on Akari · MTU Canvas
▶
5 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
In this module students will be introducted to the theory of Ego States and its various component elements. They will also be introduced to the psychoanalytic concepts of unconscious process and transference and their relationship to Ego States.

What you'll learn

  1. Describe and analyse the structural, functional and transactional models of Ego States.
  2. Describe and analyse the concept of Ego State Contamination and Blending.
  3. Describe and analyse the development of Ego States.
  4. Describe how Ego States can be brought into awareness and integrated.
  5. Describe and analyse introductory elements of group process.

Assessment

Critique · 20% · Week 10
Review of introductory group process concepts
Project · 80% · Sem End
Written project on Ego State theory
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.

Recommended reading

Ian Stewart, Vann Joines. (2012), Ta Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis, Lifespace Publishing, Nottingham, [ISBN: 9781870244022].
Richard C. Schwartz. (1997), Internal family systems therapy, Guilford Press, New York, [ISBN: 978-1572302723].
Jay Earley. (2012), Self-Therapy, 2nd. Pattern system Books, CA, [ISBN: 9780984392773].
On this site
TA Today (Stewart & Joines) — The core textbook for your TA module. Stewart & Joines' TA Today is the standard introduction to Transactional Analysis — ego states, transactions, games, scripts, and the stroke economy. These modules break the book into plain-English, illustrated lessons you can study a few minutes a day.
Games People Play (Berne) — Eric Berne's classic on the transactional games people unconsciously repeat — the scripts, rackets and pastimes of everyday relating, in TA terms.
Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (Berne) — Eric Berne's foundational book on transactional analysis as a system of psychotherapy. Ego states, transactions, games and scripts, written for clinical practice.
TA: 100 Key Points (Widdowson) — Mark Widdowson's TA: 100 Key Points and Techniques distils contemporary Transactional Analysis into 100 sharp, practical points across seven parts — approaches, the therapeutic relationship, diagnosis, contracting, treatment planning, and more. These summaries condense each part into a faithful, plain-English map you can study a few minutes a day.
Group Process Development 1 COUN6017
View on Akari · MTU Canvas · Rubric
▶
10 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
In this module students will continue to be provided with a facilitated group experience through which they will have the opportunity to develop and consolidate personal, interpersonal and group process competencies which are necessary for their development as Counselling trainees.

What you'll learn

  1. Manage him/herself personally and interpersonally in the group
  2. Present and process his/her own self experiences through active engagement in the facilitated group process.
  3. Demonstrate insight into and awareness of his/her personal process in the group and outside
  4. Demonstrate understanding and awareness of the different dynamics operating in the group and his/her own part in it
  5. Use his/her learning journal to reflect on and analyse his/her experience in the group
  6. Describe group process concepts and apply them to his/her experience in the group
  7. Use ongoing individual therapy to promote his/her own Personal Development

Assessment

Performance Evaluation · 30% · Every Second Week
Assessment of personal process competencies in group
Written Report · 30% · Sem End
Self and Group Appraisal Statement
Reflective Journal · 40% · Every Second Week
Learning Journal
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.
Self-appraisal essay rubric: Module link not confirmed from the source PDF.

Recommended reading

Alexis D. Abernethy. (2024), Addressing Diversity Dynamics in Group Therapy: Clinical and Training Applications., Routledge, [ISBN: 9781032596853].
Burlingame, G. M., & Strauss, B.. (2021), Efficacy of Small Group Treatments: Foundation for Evidence-Based Practice, In, Bergin and Garfield's Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change, 50th Anniversary 7th Edition. Wiley, p.583, [ISBN: 978-1-119-53658-1].
Mick Cooper, Windy Dryden. (2016), The Handbook of Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy, SAGE Publications Limited, [ISBN: 9781473903999].
Gerald Corey, Marianne Schneider Corey, Michelle Muratori. (2016), I Never Knew I Had a Choice: Explorations in Personal Growth, Cengage Learning, p.480, [ISBN: 1305945727].
Forsyth, D. R.. (2021), Group Dynamics, 7th. Cengage.
Gladding, S. T. & Ivers N. N.. (2026), Groups: A Counseling Specialty, 9th. Pearson.
Godward, J., Dale, H., Smith, C.. (2019), Personal Development Groups for Trainee Counsellors: An Essential Companion., Taylor & Francis.
Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. (2026), Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions (current edition). IACP, https://www.iacp.ie/iacp-code-of-ethics-and-practice
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. (2026), Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions (current edition). BACP, https://www.bacp.co.uk/media/3103/bacp-ethical-framework-for-the-counselling-professions-2018.pdf
Schneider-Corey, M., Corey G. & Corey, C.. (2026), Counseling for Groups: Process and Practice, Cengage International Edition, 11th. Cengage, [ISBN as printed: 139798214129457].
Irvin D. Yalom, Molyn Leszcz. (2020), The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, 6th. Basic Books, [ISBN: 978-1541617575].
Supplementary: Irvin Yalom. (2020), The Schopenhauer Cure, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, p.384, [ISBN: 0060938102].
On this site
The Gift of Therapy (Yalom) — Irvin Yalom's The Gift of Therapy — an open letter to a new generation of therapists. Faithful plain-language chapter summaries for revision.
The Point of Existence (Almaas) — A.H. Almaas's Diamond Approach to the structure of narcissism and the realization of the true self. Chapter summaries for advanced study.
Theory & Practice of Group Psychotherapy (Yalom & Leszcz) — Irvin Yalom with Molyn Leszcz, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (5th ed.) — the integrative standard text on group therapy: therapeutic factors, group development, patient selection, and the therapist's interventions. Faithful plain-language chapter summaries for revision.
Toward a Psychology of Awakening (Welwood) — John Welwood on bridging Buddhist awakening and western psychotherapy — the wounded self and the already-awake self.
Why Do I Do That? (Burgo) — Joseph Burgo's guide to the psychological defense mechanisms we all use without knowing it — repression, projection, splitting, idealisation — and how they shape daily life. Plain-language chapter summaries for revision.
The Maturational Processes (Winnicott) — D.W. Winnicott's papers on the mother-infant hold, the transitional object, the true and false self, and the facilitating environment.

Year 2 · Semester 2

Counselling Skills Application 2 COUN6012
View on Akari · MTU Canvas
▶
5 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
Building on the work of semester 1, students will continue to reflect upon their use of counselling, helping and interpersonal communication skills in their peer relationships. They will learn to draw upon some of the principles and practices of counselling, helping and interpersonal communications skills as they engage in practice sessions with peers. They will be facilitated to use experiential learning to reflect upon and learn from this experience. Formative assessment and feedback occurs across the semester. Students receive regular feedback on progress in class.

What you'll learn

  1. Consolidate their use of the principles and practices of counselling, helping and interpersonal communication skills to enhance their interpersonal communication and helping experience.
  2. Create helping relationships that offer empathic attunement to the client
  3. Be aware of their own personal process and how its impacts the interpersonal communication and helping situation
  4. Conduct an independent counselling interview with a peer
  5. Keep a skills application journal to describe, reflect upon and analyse their interpersonal communication and helping experience.
  6. Review their interpersonal communication and helping experience and appraise their strengths and weaknesses in relation to them.

Assessment

Practical/Skills Evaluation · 70% · Every Second Week
Counselling skills application
Reflective Journal · 30% · Every Second Week
Counselling skills application journal
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.

Recommended reading

Hammond, D. C., Hepworth, D.H., & Smith V. G.. (2002), Improving therapeutic communication : A guide for developing effective techniques., Wiley, [ISBN: 9780787948061].
Mearns, D., Thorne, B., & McLeod, J.. (2013), Person-centred counselling in action, 4th. Sage, [ISBN: 9781446252529].
On this site
Counselling Skills in Action (Stafford & Bond) — A practical guide to core counselling skills, built around a three-stage model (Beginning, Middle and Ending) with aims, plans and skills for each stage, plus common issues, self-care and a full case study.
Improving Therapeutic Communication (Hammond/Hepworth/Smith) — A clinical interviewing text — the skills of empathic, structured therapeutic communication across the helping professions.
People Skills (Bolton) — Robert Bolton on the interpersonal skills of assertiveness, listening and conflict management — a foundational communication text.
Person-Centred Counselling in Action (Mearns/Thorne/McLeod) — The classic person-centred text — Rogers's core conditions, the six necessary and sufficient conditions, and how the approach looks in the room.
Coun Skills Development 2 COUN6014
View on Akari · MTU Canvas
▶
5 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
Building on the work of Counselling Skills Development 1 (COUN6011), this module will enable students to further develop and practise the intermediate level skills in counselling and helping. Students will complete a process review and commentary on their practise counselling sessions. Formative assessment and feedback occurs across the semester. Students receive regular feedback on progress in class.

What you'll learn

  1. Create an effective therapeutic relationship that offers contactful, empathic attunement and appropriate boundaries.
  2. Make effective use of relevant, advanced counselling skills - tracking, advanced empathy, and exploring.
  3. Receive and use feedback in a non defensive and insightful way and offer feedback to other group members in an insightful and appropriately sensitive manner.
  4. Observe and reflect on their own process and manage themselves appropriately for counselling practitioning.
  5. Write a competent process commentary on the counselling practise sessions, taking account of the experience of the client, the counsellor, the process and the relationship.
  6. Competently conduct an extended counselling interview with a client and write a process commentary on it.

Assessment

Practical/Skills Evaluation · 70% · Every Second Week
Counselling practise assessment
Written Report · 30% · Every Second Week
Written process commentary on practise sessions
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.

Recommended reading

Hammond, D.C., Hepworth, D.H. & Smith, V.G.. (2002), Improving therapeutic communication : A guide for developing effective techniques., Wiley, [ISBN: 9780787948061].
Mearns, D., Thorne, B. & McLeod, J.. (2013), Person-centred counselling in action, 4th. Sage, [ISBN: 97814462529].
Siegel, D.J.. (2010), The mindful therapist: A clinician's guide to mindsight and neural integration, W.W. Norton & Co., [ISBN: 9780393706451].
On this site
Therapeutic Presence (Geller & Greenberg) — A focused course on the therapist's 'presence' — the quality of attentive, embodied, receptive availability that research shows is the bedrock of good outcomes. Built from Geller & Greenberg's model of how presence develops and what gets in its way.
Betrayal of the Body (Lowen) — Alexander Lowen's The Betrayal of the Body is the founding text of Bioenergetic Analysis — the idea that the body holds the history the mind forgets, and that reclaiming bodily aliveness is the route to real change. This is a trainee-therapist course: ten plain-English modules that turn Lowen's ideas into clinical signs, anonymised vignettes, and practices you can use in the room — faithful to the book, with no personal content.
Counselling Skills in Action (Stafford & Bond) — A practical guide to core counselling skills, built around a three-stage model (Beginning, Middle and Ending) with aims, plans and skills for each stage, plus common issues, self-care and a full case study.
Improving Therapeutic Communication (Hammond/Hepworth/Smith) — A clinical interviewing text — the skills of empathic, structured therapeutic communication across the helping professions.
The Mindful Therapist (Siegel) — Daniel Siegel on interpersonal neurobiology and the therapist's own embodied, mindful presence as the heart of effective therapy.
Person-Centred Counselling in Action (Mearns/Thorne/McLeod) — The classic person-centred text — Rogers's core conditions, the six necessary and sufficient conditions, and how the approach looks in the room.
Cultivating Therapeutic Presence (Geller) — Shari Geller's practical, embodied guide to cultivating therapeutic presence — the therapist's attuned, moment-to-moment way of being. Companion to the Geller & Greenberg text.
Working at Relational Depth (Mearns & Cooper) — Mearns & Cooper on relational depth — the therapy relationship at its most profound, meeting the client's worldview with congruence and presence.
Group Process Development 2 COUN6018
View on Akari · MTU Canvas · Rubrics
▶
10 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
Building on the work done in Semster 1, this module will provide students with a facilitated group experience through which they will have the opportunity to continue to develop and consolidate Personal, interpersonal and group process competencies which are necessary for their development as Counselling trainees.

What you'll learn

  1. Present and process his/her own self experiences through active engagement in the facilitated group process.
  2. Demonstrate an awareness of the different conscious and unconscious dynamics operating in the group and his/her own part in it
  3. Demonstrate awareness of his/her own defense mechanisms and how/he/she sustains them
  4. Appraise his/her personal process functioning particularly in those aspects that are relevant to his/her readiness to work with clients
  5. Use his/her learning journal to reflect on and analyse his/her experience in the group
  6. Apply group process concepts to his/her experience in the group
  7. Use ongoing individual therapy to promote his/her own Personal Development

Assessment

Performance Evaluation · 70% · Every Second Week
Assessment of personal process competencies in group
Written Report · 20% · Sem End
Self and Group Appraisal Statement
Reflective Journal · 10% · Every Second Week
Learning Journal
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.
Self-appraisal essay rubric: Module link not confirmed from the source PDF.

Recommended reading

Alexander Lowen. (2012), The Betrayal of the Body, Alexander Lowen Foundation, [ISBN: 97819385008].
Irvin D. Yalom. (2005), The theory and practice of group psychotherapy, Basic Books, New York, [ISBN: 978-0465092840].
Burgo, Joseph. (2012), Why Do I Do That? Psychological Defense Mechanisms and the Hidden Ways they Shape our Lives, New Rise Press, Chapel Hill, NC, [ISBN: 9780988443129].
Welwood John. (2000), Towards a Psychology of Awakening, Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston & London, [ISBN: 9781570625404].
Morris Nitsun. (2014), The Anti-Group, 2nd. Routledge London, [ISBN: 978-041581374].
A. H. ALMAAS,. (1996), The Point of Existence : Transformations of Narcissism in Self-Realization, Shambhala Publications, [ISBN: 978-0936713090].
On this site
The Anti-Group (Nitsun) — Islon Nitsun's study of the anti-group — the destructive, fragmenting forces within group therapy, and how they sit alongside the group's healing potential.
The Gift of Therapy (Yalom) — Irvin Yalom's The Gift of Therapy — an open letter to a new generation of therapists. Faithful plain-language chapter summaries for revision.
The Point of Existence (Almaas) — A.H. Almaas's Diamond Approach to the structure of narcissism and the realization of the true self. Chapter summaries for advanced study.
Theory & Practice of Group Psychotherapy (Yalom & Leszcz) — Irvin Yalom with Molyn Leszcz, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (5th ed.) — the integrative standard text on group therapy: therapeutic factors, group development, patient selection, and the therapist's interventions. Faithful plain-language chapter summaries for revision.
Toward a Psychology of Awakening (Welwood) — John Welwood on bridging Buddhist awakening and western psychotherapy — the wounded self and the already-awake self.
Why Do I Do That? (Burgo) — Joseph Burgo's guide to the psychological defense mechanisms we all use without knowing it — repression, projection, splitting, idealisation — and how they shape daily life. Plain-language chapter summaries for revision.
The Maturational Processes (Winnicott) — D.W. Winnicott's papers on the mother-infant hold, the transitional object, the true and false self, and the facilitating environment.
Life Script Application COUN6019
View on Akari · MTU Canvas
▶
5 credits · Module coordinator: Caitriona Heffernan
In this module students will learn the application of the Transactional Analysis Theory of Life Script and its various component elements, including rackets, games, strokes, life positions and discounting. They will learn the appropriate application of these concepts to their own life experience. They will also apply the components and process of personality adaptation to their own life experience. They will also be address the issue of how Life Script can be brought into awareness and changed through counselling and psychotherapy. In addition they will continue to apply the psychoanalytic concepts of unconscious process and transference as well as the elements of group process to their own experience and to the counselling setting.

What you'll learn

  1. Describe his/her own personal experience of life script and its development.
  2. Analyse how life script has been maintained and expressed in his/her own day to day living.
  3. Analyse his/her own personality adaptation using the components and processes of Personality Adaptation.
  4. Identify and analyse how unconscious process and transference are expressed in his/her own life script.
  5. Analyse his/her own experience of bringing life script into awareness and changing it.
  6. Analyse his/her own experience in the experiential group using advanced concepts from group process theory.

Assessment

Written Report · 20% · Week 10
Group Process Analysis
Project · 80% · Sem End
Written project on the application of life script
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.

Recommended reading

Ian Stewart, Vann Joines. (2012), Ta Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis, Lifespace Publishing Nottingham, [ISBN: 9781870244022].
Jay Earley. (2012), Self-Therapy, 2nd. Pattern system Books, CA, [ISBN: 9780415473873].
Richard Schwartz. (1997), Internal Family Systems Therapy, Guilford Press, New York, [ISBN: 9781572302723].
On this site
Life Scripts (Erskine) — Richard Erskine on life scripts — the unconscious contracts we make in childhood that organise a lifetime of relationship and self-belief. Chapter summaries for trainees.
What Do You Say After You Say Hello (Berne) — Eric Berne on script analysis — how the unconscious life plan is laid down in childhood and played out in adulthood, and how to read it.
Internal Family Systems Therapy (Schwartz) — Richard Schwartz's IFS model — the mind as a family of parts, the burdened protector and exiled child, and the Self that leads. Chapter summaries for trainees.
Self-Therapy (Earley) — Jay Earley's step-by-step IFS guide for working with your own parts — a trainee-friendly entry to the model Schwartz founded.
Life Script Theory COUN6020
View on Akari · MTU Canvas
▶
5 credits · Module coordinator: Mary Galvin
In this module students will be introduced to the Transactional analysis theory of Life Script and its various component elements including rackets, games, strokes, life positions and discounting. They will also be address the issue of changing life script. In addition they will continue to explore the psychoanalytic concepts of unconscious process and transference as well as the advanced elements of group process.

What you'll learn

  1. Describe and analyse the concept of life script and its process of development
  2. Analyse how life script is maintained and expressed in day to day living
  3. Describe and analyse the components and processes of Personality Adaptation
  4. Describe and analyse how unconscious process and transference are expressed in life script
  5. Describe and review the therapeutic principles and methods for bringing life script into awareness and changing it

Assessment

Project · 100% · Sem End
Written project on life script theory
Coursework Only This module is reassessed solely on the basis of re-submitted coursework. There is no repeat written examination.

Recommended reading

Ian Stewart, Vann Joines. (2012), Ta Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis, Lifespace Publishing Nottingham, [ISBN: 9781870244022].
Jay Earley. (2012), Self-Therapy, 2nd. Pattern system Books, CA, [ISBN: 780984392773].
Richard Schwartz. (1997), Internal Family Systems Therapy, Guilford Press, New York, [ISBN: 978-157230272].
On this site
Life Scripts (Erskine) — Richard Erskine on life scripts — the unconscious contracts we make in childhood that organise a lifetime of relationship and self-belief. Chapter summaries for trainees.
What Do You Say After You Say Hello (Berne) — Eric Berne on script analysis — how the unconscious life plan is laid down in childhood and played out in adulthood, and how to read it.
Internal Family Systems Therapy (Schwartz) — Richard Schwartz's IFS model — the mind as a family of parts, the burdened protector and exiled child, and the Self that leads. Chapter summaries for trainees.
Self-Therapy (Earley) — Jay Earley's step-by-step IFS guide for working with your own parts — a trainee-friendly entry to the model Schwartz founded.