Complex Clients: Neurodiversity, Addictions and Personality Disorders (CO3002Z)

Content

As an estimate - and depending upon your workplace context - a third of your clients you will do great work with, a third you will help in some way, and a third will be resistant to change. This unit is devoted to those clients who are often described as challenging to work with, as exemplified by three cohorts: (1) the neurodiverse; (2) those with addictions; and (3) people suffering with personality disorders. It is hoped that by the time you complete this unit you will not only have gained specialist knowledge about how to work with these client cohorts but have also: (1) recognised resistance to change as normal, if not also clinically useful; (2) developed ways to minimise the chance of a therapeutic rupture; and (3) gained specialist knowledge to help facilitate change. By engaging in this unit, you will also learn to manage your own clinical expectations, thereby lowering your frustration, and so become more able to meet a diversity of clients where they are at.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

Offering: This unit is to be taught in year 3, semester 1 (term 1).

Prerequisites: CO1005Z Introduction To Counselling CO1007Z Introduction To Psychology CO2006Z What Is Abnormal?: The Individual, Diagnostics, And Society

Prohibited combinations: NA

Pedagogy

Scaffolded learning In practice: This is a collaborative way of learning that takes note of the learner’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). By repeatedly extending the learner’s ZPD they develop a comprehensive and integrated system of knowledge/skills. Scaffolded learning is achieved through the provision of online modules which clearly guide a student’s learning; through activities of increased complexity during intensives; by face-to-face seminars which are tailored to induce academic/professional growth in an ordered and coherent way; and by assessments which not only seek to identify that key knowledge/skills have been learnt, but that the student is developing an integrated understanding of counselling.

Indicative Bibliography

1. American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787
2. Carreyrou, J. (2018). Bad blood: Secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup. Picador.
3. Doyle, N., & McDowall, A. (2024). Neurodiversity coaching: A psychological approach to supporting neurodivergent talent and career potential. Routledge.
4. Flores, P., Roth, J., & Straus, B. (2023). Group psychotherapy with addicted populations: An integration of theory and practice. Routledge.
5. Grandin, T. (2006). Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism (expanded ed.). Knopf.
6. Knapp, C. (1997). Drinking: A love story. Bantam.
7. Lewis, M. (2012). Memoirs of an addicted brain: A neuroscientist examines his former life on drugs. Scribe Publications.
8. Nardone, T. (2015). Chasing kites: A memoir about growing up With ADHD. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
9. Sperry, L. (2016). Handbook of diagnosis and treatment of DSM-5 personality disorders: Assessment, case conceptualization, and treatment (3rd edition). Routledge.
10. Thomas, M. (2013). Confessions of a sociopath: A life spent hiding in plain sight. Sidgwick & Jackson

Assessment