On-Campus Course Descriptions

The following are course descriptions only. For dates/times of courses, see the Course Offerings page. Not all courses listed are offered each year.

Review the program requirements to ensure you are registering in the required courses for your program.

SK501: Approaches to Community Organizing and Group Practices

This course provides an introduction to concepts, theories and methods associated with social work practice in communities locally, nationally and internationally. The scholarship on feminist community organizing, group processes, health promotion, advocacy, civic-engagement, grassroots organizing, capacity building, community economic development, international development and social movements inform the theoretical foundations for this course. Working with marginalised populations is an essential component of the course which hopes to promote systematic and reflexive thinking about specific determining factors influencing the lives of marginalized individuals globally and our roles as social work practitioners to be aware of factors such as power, privilege and our capacity to transform these factors.

SK504: Research 1

This course will offer a broad sampling of research methods (both qualitative and quantitative) and an introduction to concepts of data analysis. The aim is that students acquire knowledge and skills for conducting social work research and evaluating professional practices as well as in becoming critical consumers of research. The course also explores how decolonizing, anti-oppression and social justice perspectives can operate in current research approaches to strengthen the research enterprise. An important component of this course is the critical examination of the ethical aspects and issues of the research process. An applied research project offers students the opportunity to integrate the course content with their practicum.

SK507: Social Justice and Transformative Social Work Practices

Transformative social work practice is understood to encompass critical reflexivity and action that aims to disrupt current social inequalities and manifestations of power inherent in the delivery of social services and community work. The fluid concept of social justice will be deconstructed and explored through a variety of theoretical lenses including, but not limited to Indigenous, anti-racist, feminist, queer, disability and transnational perspectives. Theories of progressive social change practices will be explored in order to lead the student to think about concepts such as colonialism, intersectionality, power and resistance within social work practices. Students will also be encouraged to engage in reflexivity with regards to their own experiences of intersecting identities and how they are situated within relations of power.

SK508: Reflexive Group and Community Practice

This course focuses on five broad areas of learning: (1) theory of small group development and functioning; (2) principles and methods of adult empowerment, as well as member/leadership development; (3) the use of self in groups/meetings and various community practice settings; (4) understanding the implications of the social location of professional helpers and various populations using social services and other relevant groupings; and (5) the appropriate use of discussion, decision-making and problem-solving procedures in groups/meetings. Particular consideration is given to adapting our ways of working for different types of participants, including various disadvantaged and marginalised populations.

SK509: Social Work Practice with Groups

This course provides an introduction to clinical group work. The history and evolution of social group work is reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the application of basic knowledge and skills to clinical group work. This includes consideration of stages of group development and other group dynamics, therapeutic factors in groups and generic group work skills. An introduction to the application of various clinical theories to group work is also provided. 

SK522: Social Work Practice with Individuals

In this course students learn the basic tenets and skills of a range of theories applicable to practice with individuals. The course emphasizes an experiential approach to teaching and practicing skills. The main elements of the course are: the processes and stages involved in social work practice with individuals; an introduction to the importance of reflexivity and self-awareness in the co-construction of the social work relationship; ethics; skills of interviewing, holistic assessment, and developing a complex understanding of the service user within an ecological systems context; and issues important in working with diverse and marginalized populations, including a trauma-informed perspective and indigenous worldviews.

SK536: Integrating Theory and Practice

This experientially oriented course aims to support students in connecting and applying foundational social work theory to practice and practicum settings. It is offered over the same time period as the practicum. The course provides an opportunity for students to understand the interconnections between research, theory and practice within the context of their own practice including the role of the mind, body, emotions and spirit. It will provide a space for students to grapple with dilemmas arising in placement through the medium of hands-on exercises and simulations.

SK541: Foundational Field Education

The Foundational Field Education course is a supervised field experience designed to develop competence pertinent to social work practice. As part of the requirements of the field course, students participate in activities facilitated by the MSW field education office. At minimum, students complete 450 placement hours within pre-approved start and end dates. In some instances, students will be required to complete additional placement hours in order to be adequately assessed by the field instructor and field coordinator. Graded on a S/F basis.

Note: Students will register in this course each term they are actively engaged in their foundational field education placement. This may require up to 2 terms or more of registration.

SK545: Introduction to Ethical Thought and Reflexive Practice

This course is designed to expose participants to ethics and reflexivity as they intersect and are performed in social work practice. Professional and relational ethics, ethical decision-making models and the intersections between the law and professional ethics are reviewed and scrutinized from a critical perspective. Self-awareness as an aspect of reflexivity and as it relates to ethics and values in our working relationships, is considered throughout. Contemporary workplace examples are used to ground theory and reflexivity to practice. Such reflexive practices are rooted and framed by our epistemological foundations – or the ways in which we understand the nature of knowledge and its creation. Thus, a consideration of how we know and how such knowing is socially and culturally constructed will support our considerations of ethics and reflexivity.

SK552: Social Work Practice with Families

This course provides a critical study of widely used approaches to practice with diverse family forms within social work settings. Emphasis will be placed on influential theories that impact and guide the methods used in the practice of family social work.

SK592: Trans-National Social Work Practice

This course will explore and critically analyse the impact of globalization and transnationalism on social work theories and practice. Social work practice concepts like social justice, culture, oppression, advocacy and power will be germane to these discussions. The course will enhance students’ knowledge of international social work, explore best practices on how to respond to globalization locally and transnationally and evaluate the diverse ways that social work is practiced around the world.

SK596: International Social Work Research

The course aims to support students’ knowledge production at the global level. With globalization at the core of the discourse, students will be encouraged to integrate their academic work with their practice experiences and to think about social work research and interventions in the field of globalization at the local, national and international levels.

SK597: International Social Work Research Paper

The International Social Work Research Paper extends students’ understanding of research methods and considerations in international contexts by providing an opportunity to conduct and report a small-scale research study. The knowledge gained in SK596 prior to the international placement will be a foundation for designing and carrying out a research study of limited and realistic scope during their placement. The study must be of benefit to their placement agencies and/or the region where the placements are located. It is therefore expected that a participatory approach will be taken to determine the research goals and design. Students will submit a research report at their return to campus.

SK599: Field Education Orientation

This course will support students’ placement readiness and practically prepare them for field education as an emerging practitioner in a professional setting. To achieve this, the course will focus on: orienting students to field education and their field course requirements; preparing students for professional practice within their setting of interest; integrating an equity lens in their placement; and orienting students to their future roles as field instructors. This online course will also integrate preparatory labs and seminars with MSW field educators and practitioners.

Students complete this course during the term identified for their program’s sequence at the time of admission. Course delivery timelines may vary for on-campus and online students and are based on the student’s program sequence. Students enroll in this course in the first term of their placement and the course has to coincide with the start of the placement. Students cannot complete this course before the placement starts or after it ends. 15 hours will be credited to a student’s placement upon successful completion (graded as a satisfactory/fail).

SK608: Community Capacity Building

This course focuses on understanding the nature of healthy communities and their relationships to well-being for people. A primary interest is supporting the capacity of community members to act on their own behalf. Basic purposes include both developing a theoretical understanding of community capacity building, as well as introducing relevant practice principles and methods. Other topics may include working cross-culturally, leadership/membership development, participatory project development, fundraising, fostering partnerships and solving common problems in community organizations. Adaptations for various disadvantaged and minority populations will be considered.

SK609: Program Development and Social Planning

This course examines the theories and methods of planning and developing social service projects and programs. Methods of developing programs will be considered, including doing relevant participatory research, strategic planning, generating political support, fundraising and writing proposals, recruiting and maintaining staff, and ensuring that programs are responsive to marginalised populations. This course will also discuss co-ordinating and planning services, including neighbourhood, regional and sectoral planning. Different models of social planning will be considered in terms of responding to the changing needs of marginalised populations.

SK610: Social Change and Social Action

This course focuses on theories and practices of social change, as well as on the purposes, organization and strategies of social movements by marginalized populations such as people living in poverty, First Nations people, people of colour, gays/lesbians/transgendered/bisexual people, two-spirited people, elderly people, people with disabilities and people in less wealthy countries. Topics may include visions of a just society, methods of civil disobedience, modes of social action organizing and organizations and the context provided by globalization. Specific techniques may be considered, such as financing social movements, use of the media, use of new technologies, action research, building coalitions, lobbying and advocacy.

SK615: Research 2

Consistent with the social work goal of contributing to social justice and social change, this course aims to expand students' research knowledge and skills. Students will acquire and develop skills in qualitative and quantitative data analysis. This course offers students extended practice and knowledge on a sample of research methods that are designed to expose and transform social arrangements that perpetuate inequalities and marginalization. Emphasis will be placed on how to work in collaborative and participatory ways to generate and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, integrate analyses in mixed methods research, evaluate social work programs, and mobilize knowledge in ways that are respectful.

SK619: Power, Violence and Resilience

This course has been designed to critically explore how we may understand various landscapes of power and the systems of oppression which influence individuals and communities both locally and globally. Course objectives aim to inform our understanding, reactions and interventions relative to individuals/communities in society who have been impacted by colonization, racism, gendered and sexual violence, structural, economic and workplace violence and violence against women in post conflict settings. The course is committed to honouring the resilience of survivors as well as exploring the prevention and coping strategies which inform social work practices. As such, both micro and macro practices are highlighted throughout the course through the exploration of treatment approaches, advocacy, prevention and community building.

SK620: Marital and Couple Counselling

An introduction to the theory and practice of couple’s therapy from the perspective of several theoretical models.

SK621: Reflective Practices

The emphasis of this course is on the use of self as it relates to the direct practice experience of the student. The overall objective is to enhance self-awareness and interpersonal skills that are related to the conscious use of self in social work practice. A focus on self-reflective awareness will include an examination of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that arise in practice interactions, including how these are influenced by personal history, social location and attitudes toward issues of diversity and difference (e.g. race/ethnicity, culture, gender, religion, class, sexual orientation and disability). (Graded as Pass/Fail.)

SK622: Personal and Professional Identity: Reflexivity and Growth in International Context

This course explores how personal and professional identities are shaped and communicated and done so through theoretical and conceptual analysis as well as through reflexive practice. Class race/ethnicity, sexuality and gender and ideology and nationality are all macro level shapers of our identities. At more personal levels, family, birth order, personality type and a range of other factors shape and construct identity ‘stories’. Professional choices are in turn shaped by the foregoing and we construct a professional identity which is then further shaped and re-shaped by our educational and work experiences. As part of our reflections and analyses, we consider how inequality is supported by institutions, cultural practices, and national narratives that vary historically and culturally. This course is targeted to those planning an international practicum and is intended to offer an opportunity for challenging personal and professional reflection.

SK630: International Placement Orientation: Intro to Culture, History and Traditions of Your Host Country

This course will focus on practically preparing students for a four-month residency in a different cultural and social work milieu. Travelling to and living in a new country can offer multiple learning opportunities and challenges. An important aspect of preparation is learning some of the history of the country where the student will reside. Through this individually oriented review and seminar discussion, students will examine the political and social environments with which they will need to become familiar. The course will also engage with students on issues of health and safety, assessing and managing risk, navigating relationships and ethical dilemmas in the field. This course is a direct segue into SK622 and the major assignment will be the preparation of a background paper that describes and analyses the historical and contemporary conditions and issues of their host country. A final grade (pass/fail) will be determined through student participation as well as the background paper and presentation.

SK632B: Social Work in Health and Mental Health

The focus of this course will be to provide a critical perspective on issues and best practices in the fields of health and mental health. Current issues and best practices include dominant and critical perspectives on issues such as deinstitutionalization, social work and the DSM, and evidence-based practices in mental health, as well as alternative discourses such as consumer-based movements, the recovery model of mental health and peer mentorship initiatives.

SK632D: Solidarity with Indigenous People

The purpose of this course is to facilitate students in Laurier’s MSW Program to develop relationships of mutual respect and solidarity with Indigenous people. This is part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s call for moving way from settler superiority / entitlement, and moving towards new, mutually respectful settler-Indigenous relationships.

The course will clarify what it means to learn the truth before we can have reconciliation. The course will focus on challenges for the re-education of non-Indigenous people in order to undo the personal and political imposition of Anglo-French European prejudices, practices, policies, and narratives upon Indigenous people. The implications for social work will be considered.

SK632L: Mindfulness-Based Therapies: DBT, ACT, MBSR

Mindfulness is the intentional, non-judgmental focusing of our attention on the present moment. With commitment to the sustained practice of mindfulness, we are able to positively transform our relationship with our inner world of thoughts, emotions, memories and physical sensations. Research on the impact of mindfulness practice suggests that over time, it can improve attention, compassion and empathy. For social workers and others in helping professions, it can be a form of self-care, increasing resiliency and aiding in the prevention of compassion fatigue.

Participants in Mindfulness-Based Therapies will use a critical lens to explore the “third wave” of cognitive-behavioural therapies (i.e. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy), all which incorporate mindfulness practice as a common core instrument of change. Using an experiential and interactive approach, this course is designed to increase students’ theoretical understanding and application of these models in clinical practice with individuals, families and groups. Students are expected to establish (or build upon) their own mindfulness practices with the view that this experiential learning will equip them to apply these models more effectively in practice.

SK632U: Disability and Social Work

The course is designed to facilitate critical thinking through understanding the impact of different paradigms and the analysis of specific issues, and prepare students for practice through developing knowledge and competencies within the health and disability context.

SK632V: Race, Gender and Crime

This course will examine the role of gender and race in relation to criminalization and incarceration and will include the following topics: 1) Processes of criminalization of racialized and gendered bodies; 2) the relationship between colonization and the prison industrial complex in the Canadian context; 3) the gendered and racialized nature of punishment regimes; 4) alternative community-based approaches to dealing with harm.

SK632X: Advancing Racial Equity in Organizations

This course provides students with the models, practices and strategies for advancing equity. Working from the assumption that students will be engaging this issue when they graduate, the course develops concrete skills for addressing racial bias and microaggressions, assessing organizations, developing action plans, and implementing change. Within the mandates that are typically available to social workers (as front-line service providers, supervisors and managers, Board members, equity and inclusion managers, equity committee members, and human service executive directors), the course will build individual, organizational and leadership efficacy for advancing racial equity.

SK649: Advanced Field Education

The Advanced Field Education course is a supervised field experience designed to develop competence pertinent to social work practice. As part of the requirements of the field course, students participate in activities facilitated by the MSW field education office. At minimum, students complete 500 placement hours within pre-approved start and end dates. In some instances, students will be required to complete additional placement hours in order to be adequately assessed by the field instructor and field coordinator. Graded on a S/F basis.

Note: Students will register in this course each term they are actively engaged in their field education placement. This may require up to 2 terms or more of registration.

SK651: Advanced Social Work Practice with Individuals

This course builds on SK522 by taking a more in-depth look at the integration of theory and practice in clinical work with a variety of client presenting problems. It includes an overview of major classes of psychiatric diagnoses and a critical look at the value of such diagnostic categories considering race, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation and so forth. The strengths and weaknesses of various theoretical approaches to intervening with specific client problems and populations are reviewed.

SK652: Advanced Social Work Practice with Families

This course builds on SK552 by taking a more in-depth look at the integration of theory with family practice. Emphasis is placed on the inclusion of substantive issues in family work (e.g., drug misuse, eating disorders, gerontological issues, divorce, developmental issues, sexual orientation, poverty, and work with families from diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds).

SK653: Advanced Social Work Practice with Groups

This course builds on the introductory clinical groups class by taking a more in-depth look at the integration of theory and practice in clinical group work. This course differentiates between psycho-educational/mutual aid groups and psychotherapeutic social work groups, where skill development and change is the primary aim. It focuses on developing competencies in delivering psychotherapeutic social work groups by critically analyzing some of the commonly used group therapy models and their application. Additionally, this course explores the values, assumptions and ethical issues inherent in group work and addresses issues of power and identity across various social locations.

SK654: Brief Therapies

This course focuses on time-limited counselling approaches for individuals, couples and families. It is designed for students interested in developing time-sensitive, client-responsive counseling skills. The assumptions and practice skills from various brief therapeutic approaches are critically examined, as is empirical evidence for the effectiveness of such approaches. The usefulness of brief therapies in various social work settings and with diverse populations is explored.

SK656: Death, Dying and Bereavement 

This course is designed to assist students in developing an understanding of, and gaining insight into the many realities faced by individuals and families in the context of death and dying. This course explores concepts and theories, both modern and post-modern, related to death, dying and bereavement. Various practice issues and cultural beliefs are examined and students are supported in developing a critical analysis of grief therapy and "grief work". Throughout the course, students are encouraged to examine personal attitudes and responses to death and grief.

SK657: Treatment of Children and Adolescents

Clinical theory and practice related to direct intervention with children and adolescents. Topics include understanding development in infancy, childhood and adolescence, examining problems that arise between children and their families, and enhancing assessment and treatment skills in relation to these problems.

SK658: Social Work Practice with Older Adults

Focussing on practice with older adults and their families, the course examines areas such as role transition in later life, retirement, physical, social and economic changes, intergenerational family intervention, losses, widowhood and grief reactions.

SK659: Addictions, Assessment and Treatment

This course helps students develop a critical understanding of social work theory and practice related to a variety of addiction issues including substance-related concerns, process addictions, and concurrent disorders. Students are introduced to a range of theoretical perspectives, and learn to view addiction as an outcome of various factors including individual, familial, social, cultural, and historical environments. This course reviews the development of diverse assessment and treatment approaches along the continuum of support, and assists students in learning how various perspectives influence the implementation of interventions in an assortment of service delivery contexts and across a number of vulnerable populations.

SK664: Sexual and Gender Diversity

This course examines the multifaceted impact of homophobia and heterosexism; its intersection with other forms of oppression; approaches to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered populations in the human services; theoretical and policy issues; cultural/ethnic/racial dimensions of mental health issues; and practice interventions. This course takes an integrated approach to social work practice, linking policy, theory and various forms of community and clinical practice.

SK665: Relational Accountability: Transforming Social Work with Indigenous Peoples

This course provides students with the conceptual tools and knowledge for understanding the nature of First Nations historical/structural problems; the role and operation of social services in Indigenous contexts; alternative (culture based and healing focused) methods of intervention; and present day Indigenous concerns and issues including concepts of Indigenous title.

Note: There will be smudging during this class. If you require accommodations due to documented health concerns, please consult with Accessible Learning.

SK666: Alternative Social Work Interventions

This course examines theories, practices and research dealing with alternatives to traditional professional-client talking therapies and community interventions. New innovative approaches are examined in healing at individual, community and societal levels based upon holistic concepts that draw upon practices from around the world.

SK667: Play Therapy

This introductory course on the method of play therapy with children includes theories of play, a review of developmental and attachment theories that affect children and adolescents, the various methods of play therapy, and the treatment phases within the play therapy process.

SK668: Social Work Practice with Survivors of Trauma

This course increases knowledge of the range of potentially traumatic experiences to which human beings are exposed and the spectrum of human responses to traumatic events. Themes examined include: the meaning of trauma and traumatic events; assessment and intervention; violence in the home; insidious cultural and historical trauma; torture, war and organized crime; trauma and memory; witnessing and testimony; retraumatization and the healing process; vicarious trauma; and self-care. While the course examines theoretical approaches, it places particular emphasis on issues of assessment and intervention.

SK681: The Political and Organizational Contexts of Social Work Practice

Social work practice is embedded in policies and organizations that represent conflicting views about the source of social problems and their solutions. The purpose of this course is to facilitate a basic understanding of the development and implementation of social policies, with emphasis on the role social workers can play in formal policy making processes, and in the shaping of policies as they are being implemented. The course will provide students with strategies for maintaining, changing and disrupting particular policies and organizational practices.

SK688: Alternative Social Work Interventions

This course examines the impact of illness and disability on individuals, families and communities. It provides a bio-psycho-social frame of reference for understanding health and disease. The major focus will be on social work roles in the interdisciplinary health care systems.

SK690: Inequality, Poverty and Income Support

This course focuses on the nature of inequality in the context of Canada and Canadian public policy. Recent theories tie social inequality in its various forms to social exclusion and to citizen disengagement. Social work roles in shaping policy, in social planning and in community development are considered in responding to these divisive social issues. The nature and types of inequality and why it arises are all explored. Poverty is associated with many of the social problems that affect social work clients. This course examines theories about poverty and considers the ways that it might be addressed. Why, in Canada are the poor often racialized, women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ, and First Nations? We will discuss the current ideas about poverty alleviation including a living wage, welfare and a guaranteed annual income. Comparative policy research, theories and practices will be addressed including how to understand and resolve these issues. Comparative policy analysis will examine different policies within Indigenous nations, Canada, the United States and other industrial countries including European countries. These approaches will be contrasted to the situation and approaches used in the global south. A major focus of the course will be upon what is working and for whom.

SK693: Crisis Intervention

Students will be provided with a background in theories and intervention strategies that deal with crisis situations. A number of important themes will be addressed, including: the crisis interventionist/person(s) in crisis relationship, suicide intervention, violence against women, sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse, recovery and aftermath of trauma, crisis related to substance use, illness, death and loss, poverty and homelessness, and community programs for crisis intervention. Strategies of crisis intervention such as specific crisis intervention models, feminist, brief solution focused therapy and narrative therapy will be discussed. Would be also examined issues of historical and structural disadvantage as well as marginalization based on factors such as race, class, gender, culture, sexual orientation, etc. and other circumstantial and situational factors involved in ‘crises’. Students are expected to identify and be aware of personal values and belief systems that inform their social work practice and its implications in crisis intervention. Students will have an opportunity to share their knowledge and practice crisis intervention skills through group exercises and class discussions.

SK695: Poverty in Canada and Its Implications for Social Work

An investigation of the prevalence and impact of economic hardship among the users of social services and the implication of these patterns for social work values, policies and direct interventions with this population.

SK698: MSW Thesis

A thesis formulated and completed in the student's area of concentration.