Course Offerings for 2018/19

Registration Status: YR3PT (Fall/Winter)  This course is held every two weeks over two terms.

• Section @1: 4:30 p.m. to 7:20 p.m., W 

Registration Status: YR1FT (Winter/Spring)  This course is held every two weeks over two terms.

• Section @2: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F
• Section @3: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F 
• Section @4: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F  
• Section @5: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F 

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1FT (Winter/Spring)

• Section @1: Monday - Wednesday, three days/week

Description

The work placement is an integral part of the curriculum and is structured to enable students to use their knowledge as professional social workers in practice situations. The student chooses placements based on interest and knowledge base and is placed by practicum coordinator.

Registration Status: YR1FT 

• Section 1: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., R
• Section 2: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., R 
• Section 3: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., R

Description

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.

Registration Status: ISWD

• Section 1: Registration by permission only

Description

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.

Registration Status: ISWD

• Section @2: Registration by permission only, Lea Caragata

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT (Fall/Winter, Spring if required)

• Section @1: Three days/week

Registration Status: YR2FT (Fall/Winter, Spring if required)

• Section @2: Three days/week

Description

A supervised field experience designed to develop competence pertinent to social work practice in the student's chosen area of concentration (29 weeks). Graded on a S/F basis.

Registration Status: Override Only

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

Registration Status: YR1FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 9 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., R 
• Section 2: 4:30 p.m. to 7:20 p.m., R 

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1FT

• Section 1:  9 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., F

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1FT, YR3PT, YR2FT ISWD

• Section 1: 9 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., R

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., R 

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT*

*Please note - registration for this evening elective will be restricted to YR3PT students until June 1, then it will open to other cohorts.

• Section 1: 4:30 p.m. to 7:20 p.m., R 

Description

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.  

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F 

Description

Cultural, anthropological, sociological and psychological understandings: this course would be a critical exploration of human attachment. The course would go beyond the traditional psychological focus of Attachment Theory through including socio-political and cultural perspectives on attachment across the life course, and implications for social work practice and policy.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 9 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., F 

Description:

This course will promote knowledge, skills and attitudes that social workers should possess to effectively address issues related to how faith, spirituality, and social work practice intersect.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F 

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 9 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., R 

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 9 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., R 

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 9 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., F 

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT or YR3PT

• Section 1: 4:30 p.m. to 7:20 p.m., R
• Section 3: 9:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., F

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR2FT, YR3PT

• Section 1: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., R 

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1FT (Winter/Spring)

This course is held every two weeks over two terms.

• Section @2: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F 
• Section @3: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F 
• Section @4: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F  
• Section @5: 1:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m., F 

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1FT (Winter/Spring)

• Section @1: Monday - Wednesday, three days/week

Description

The work placement is an integral part of the curriculum and is structured to enable students to use their knowledge as professional social workers in practice situations. The student chooses placements based on interest and knowledge base and is placed by practicum coordinator.

Registration Status: YR1FT, AdvFT, YR3PT, ISWD and Thesis Students

• Section 1: Intensive - June 24, 25, 26 & July 3, 4

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT

• Section 4: 9 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., W 

Description

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.  

Registration Status: ISWD

• Section 1: Registration by permission only, Lea Caragata

Description

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.

Registration Status: ISWD

• Section 1: Registration by permission only 

Description

Registration Status: YR1FT

• Section 1: 9 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., F 
• Section 2: 9 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., F  
• Section 3: Intensive 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., May 13, 14, 16, 21, 23
• Section 4: Intensive 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., June 3, 4, 6, 10, 11

Description

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 Aboriginal contexts; alternative (culture based and healing focused) methods of intervention; and present day Aboriginal concerns and issues including concepts of Aboriginal title.

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

Registration Status: YR3FT

• Section 5: 4 p.m. to 7:50 p.m., R 

Description

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.

Registration Status: Override Only 

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

Registration Status: AdvFT

• Section 1: Friday; Please email fswassist@wlu.ca for the schedule of this course.

Description

Mindfulness-Based Therapies will explore the “third wave” of cognitive-behavioural therapies (i.e. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy), all which apply mindfulness practice as a common intervention. Using an experiential and interactive approach, this course will look at increasing understanding and theoretical application of these models as applied to clinical practice with individuals, families and groups. The strengths and shortcomings of the models will be examined as will caveats for new practitioners.

Registration Status: AdvFT; 2YRFT; 3YRPT

• July 10, 11, 12, 15 & 16.

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvFT

• Section 1: 9 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., R 

Description

This course will assist social work students to become practitioners of expressive arts therapy in group work with young people. This course will present an overview of the expressive arts field, highlighting modalities such as music therapy, drama therapy, psychodrama, dance, art therapy, play therapy, sand tray therapy, poetry, eco, yoga and mindfulness-based therapies, and body mapping. This course builds on core knowledge in theories of group dynamics to explore how artistic processes affect them. The course surfaces and considers practice dimensions of critical social work approaches within this field. It also requires that students participate in experiential forms of learning.

This course is being offered by Walls to Bridges. For more information on this program please refer to their website.

Registration Status: AdvFT, YR1FT

• Section W2B: 5 p.m. to 8:50 p.m., R, Shoshana Pollack

Description

This section of SK632V will be offered as a Walls to Bridges (W2B) course to be held at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener on Thursday evenings 5:00pm-8:50 p.m.  Half of the students will be from the Faculty of Social Work and the other half will be women incarcerated at Grand Valley Institution.

W2B courses are taught using circle processes, experiential activities and dialogue. Students are asked to be active participants, engage authentically and bring their whole selves to the class. Please note, this is not a class designed to teach you to work with criminalized people. It is an opportunity to study the course content with incarcerated women as peers and as such is based upon collaborative learning and collective analysis.

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. This course is taught from the Walls to Bridges model which uses circle work and experiential learning to foster an equalitarian learning community within a prison setting. The Walls to Bridges pedagogical approach combines academic texts and scholarly discussion with  knowledge obtained through dialogue among university-based and incarcerated students.

Application process: If you are interested in this unique opportunity, please send a copy of your CV and a letter of interest to Shoshana Pollack spollack@wlu.ca. You will be contacted for a brief interview. Application deadline Feb. 1, 2019.  

YR1FT students who take this course can use it towards Advanced Elective requirements in year two.

Registration Status: AdvFT

• Section 1: 1:30 p.m. to 5:20 p.m., R 

Description

This course will focus on how future social service managers and supervisors can foster service effectiveness, equity, and social justice through human resource practice methods. This course will present ways to develop an equitable, healthy, and viable workplace for organizations and employees. It will explore the role of managers and supervisors as leaders and change agents within organizations. Using a power, oppression, diversity, and social justice as an integrated guiding framework, students will learn relevant skills in staff recruitment, hiring, retention and termination, staff supervision and development, and change management. Relevant legislation governing workplace relationships will be examined.

Registration Status: AdvFT

• Section 2: 1:30 p.m. to 5:20 p.m., W

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1PT, AdvPT

• Section OWA: Online, January 7 - February 15
• Section OWD: Online, January 7 - February 15

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1PT

• Section OWB: Online, February 25 - April 5

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1PT, AdvPT

• Section OWB: Online, February 25 - April 5

Description

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.  

Registration Status: YR1PT

• Section OSA: Online, May 6 – June 17

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvPT

• Section OSA: Online, May 6 - June 17

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1PT

• Section OSC: Online, May 6 - August 6

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1PT

• Section OSC: Online, May 6 - August 6, Yumna Al-Adeimi

Description

The work placement is an integral part of the curriculum and is structured to enable students to use their knowledge as professional social workers in practice situations. The student chooses placements based on interest and knowledge base and is placed by practicum coordinator.

Registration Status: YR1PT

• Section OSB: Online, July 8 - August 19

Description

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.

Registration Status: YR1PT, AdvPT

• Section OSB: Online, July 9 - August 19

Description

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.  

Registration Status: AdvPT

• Section OSB: Online, July 8 – August 19, Ginette Lafreniere

Description

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.

• Prerequisite: SK522

Registration Status: AdvPT

• Section OSA: Online, May 6 - June 17

Description

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.

Registration Status: AdvPT

• Section OSB: Online, July 8 - August 19, Eliana Suarez 

Description

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.