Psychotherapy Under Supervision 4 - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 3.5 credits

Passing the previous term’s “Psykoterapi under handledning samt arbetsplatsförlagd praktik 3” (“Psychotherapy under supervision and applied practice 3”) course is a prerequisite for participation in this course.

Knowledge and understanding
On completion of the course, students – in connection with patients who have been diagnosed with addiction, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders or personality disorders – will be able to:

• critically reflect on treatment principles and methods applicable fo the above mentioned diagnoses
• critically reflect on evidence-based manualised methods developed for the above diagnoses
• critically reflect on factors that should guide the choice of treatment objectives in connection with the above diagnoses and any comorbidity

Skills and abilities
On completion of the course, students – in connection with patients who have been diagnosed with addiction, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders or personality disorders – will be able to:

• carry out and evaluate the application of behavioural analysis/conceptualisation of the issues in question
• operationalise mental suffering, measure behaviour and plan treatment
• carry out and evaluate diagnostic findings and formulate treatment objectives on the basis of these
• in the event of complex comorbidity, formulate the patient’s problems and agree on a treatment plan together with the patient
• follow and critically analyse the outcome of a clearly formulated treatment agreement
• reformulate the treatment plan if necessary in order to achieve the treatment objectives better
• describe and reflect on their own knowledge and deficiencies in knowledge within the area in question to supervisors and colleagues
• establish a good supervisor relationship, including listening to information and feedback and following the supervisor’s advice
• document and critically review their treatment work through session reports, psychotherapy summaries and journal notes

Evaluations and attitudes
On completion of the course, students – in connection with patients who have been diagnosed with addiction, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders or personality disorders – will be able to:

• behave professionally towards clients and their family members, and reflect on how this objective affects the treatment provider’s own actions
• analyse and critically reflect on the use of different methods to assess the progress of the treatment
• analyse the significance of the treatment provider having clinical responsibility for the patient and how this affects his or her own freedom as a treatment provider
• evaluate their own activities for knowledge generation within the supervision group
• evaluate the implementation of the treatment with regard to institutional rules and requirements
• evaluate the consequences of their own evaluations and those of others in connection with psychotherapeutic treatment

The aim of the course is to provide deeper experience of carrying out cognitive behavioural therapy under supervision with clients who have been diagnosed with addiction, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders and/or personality disorders. The emphasis will be on the choice of treatment objectives and strategies, as well as manualised and evidence-based treatments in the case of complex comorbidity.

Teaching takes place in the form of group supervision in groups of approximately four students. In order to optimise the opportunities for adequate feedback from the supervisor, video and audio recordings of the psychotherapy sessions are used. Written session reports are completed after every session and before supervision.

The teaching requires students to participate actively with reflections on their own patient materials and those of other group members.

Supervision is mandatory. Students will not pass in the event of more than 20% absence. Examination takes place through the supervisor’s continuous assessment of the student’s competence via recorded psychotherapy sessions and activities during supervision, and through written reports in the form of session summaries and treatment report after treatment has been concluded. At least one treatment report should be detailed. Students must have met the journal-keeping requirement during the term in order to pass the module.

This is a clinically applied module, and students who fail are entitled to repeat the course on one occasion.

A student’s work-based education or equivalent may be ended immediately by an examiner if the student demonstrates such a serious lack of knowledge, skills or attitude that patient safety or patients’ confidence in medical care is jeopardised. When work-based education is ended, the student fails the current module and one instance of work-based education has been used.
In such cases, an individual action plan will be drawn up detailing which activities and knowledge checks are required before the student will be given the opportunity to carry out a new instance of work-based education on this course.
Students who fail work-based education or equivalent as a result of demonstrating such a serious lack of knowledge, skills or attitude that patient safety or patients’ confidence in medical care is jeopardised will only be authorised to carry out a new instance of work-based education once the individual action plan has been carried out.

An examination will be made available for a period of one year in the event of the course being discontinued or a new course syllabus being devised.

Course evaluation will be carried out in accordance with the guidelines established by the Board of Higher Education.

Each student must submit confirmation from his or her employer demonstrating that the student has been employed on a part-time basis with psychotherapeutic work tasks in psychiatric care or equivalent duties during the term in question.