Instructors: Fr. Makary Ibrahim, MD
E-mail: agapemercy@gmail.com Phone: 210-730-3782
Course Objectives:
The student will gain a general understanding of:
- Healthy relationships
- The helping relationship
- The importance of values in helping
- Basic communication skills
- Attending, listening and understanding
- Basic empathy
- The art of probing and summarizing
- Helping clients tell their stories
- Emergencies: Suicide & Homicide: how to handle them?
- Reluctant and resistant clients
- Helping clients make plans
- Termination issues in counseling.
Required Text:
Lukas, Susan; Where to start and what to ask (An assessment Handbook) W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN-10: 0393701522
Recommended Text:
(Few related chapters)
[Only to be used as a reference from the Library].Kaplan & Sadock’s; Synopsis of Psychiatry- Ninth Edition
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
On-Site Lesson Schedule:
Readings Prior to Arrival: Few handouts will be e-mailed on: Introduction, the helping relationship, communication skills. The Instructor will give an overview of the course and will emphasize the important points.
| Grading Scale: | Test Schedule | Percentage of course grade |
| A 90-100
B 80-89 C Below 80 |
Test 1-12
Final Test |
60%
40% |
Course Requirements:
1. Attending the course’s lectures in the announced conference.
2. Having daily access to the Internet and basic typing skills.
3. Turning assignments after the dead line may reduce the score by 25 %
4. There will be a comprehensive final exam which
will be following all the rest of the work that has been completed and turned in.
Distance Learning Lesson Schedule:
| Week | Lesson | Text Book Assignment | Test Schedule |
| Week 1 | Communication Skills | Handout | |
| Week 2 | How to conduct the First Interview with an adult? | Page 1 | Test 1 + 2 |
| Week 3 | Looking, Listening, and Feeling:The Mental Status ExamHow to write an assessment? | Page 13Page 162 | |
| Week 4 | How to conduct the First Interview with a family? | Page 44 | Test 3 + 4 |
| Week 5 | How to conduct the First Interview with a child? | Page 58 | |
| Week 6 | How to conduct the First Interview with a couple? | Page 87 | Test 5 + 6 |
| Week 7 | How to determine whether a client might hurt somebody- Including you? | Page 101 | |
| Week 8 | How to determine whether a client might hurt self? | Page 112 | Test 7 + 8 |
| Week 9 | How to assess children for neglect, abuse, and sexual abuse? | Page 138 | |
| Week 10 | What psychological testing is & when you might ask for it? | Page 153 | Test 9 + 10 |
| Week 11 | Building the Relationship and establishing Goals | Handout | |
| Week 12 | Issues affecting Helping + Termination and Follow-up | Handout | Test 11 +12 |
| Final TEST |