Counselling Children: Advanced Foundations and Practice
About This Course
This course prepares learners to counsel children aged 4–12 through a developmentally informed, evidence-aware approach. Learners will build a strong knowledge base in child counselling and practise core clinical skills, including therapeutic relationship-building, case conceptualization, facilitating insight, and supporting meaningful change. The course emphasises applied technique, with guided practice using somatic, symbolic/expressive, cognitive, and behavioural interventions tailored to children’s needs and contexts. Critical professional issues are integrated throughout, including ethical decision-making, documentation standards, risk management, and safe practice when working with children and families across diverse settings.
What You'll Learn
2. Recognise and describe mental health conditions that typically emerge in childhood and early adolescence, and their implications for counselling.
3. Articulate and apply a developmental lens to case conceptualisation and intervention planning with children.
4. Demonstrate foundational counselling competencies for individual work with children and for engaging families in the therapeutic process.
5. Collaborate effectively with caregivers, including conducting parent consultations and supporting caregiver involvement in treatment goals.
6. Develop an integrative clinical framework for initial assessment, goal-setting, treatment planning, and ongoing progress review with children and families.
7. Design child-centred treatment plans that incorporate appropriate caregiver psychoeducation and family-based supports to promote sustainable change.
8. Justify the selection and integration of somatic, symbolic/expressive, cognitive, and behavioural interventions based on client needs and formulation.
9. Select and use developmentally appropriate therapeutic media (e.g., sand tray, puppets, drawing, games) to facilitate engagement, expression, and therapeutic change.
10. Apply relevant ethical codes, policies, and risk-management practices to ensure safe, lawful, and professionally responsible counselling with children
Entry Requirements
A bachelor’s degree or its equivalent in a related discipline;
Candidates with a non-related bachelor’s degree and relevant work experience may be considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to the approval of the Department of Social Work; or
Candidates with other qualifications and work experiences may be considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to the approval of the Faculty.