Study information

Clinical Seminars and Reflective Practice I

Module titleClinical Seminars and Reflective Practice I
Module codePYCD007
Academic year2024/5
Credits30
Module staff

Dr Margherita Margiotti (Convenor)

Duration: Term123
Duration: Weeks

All

All

All

Number students taking module (anticipated)

12

Module description

You will participate in multiple seminars per term each year, during block weeks and at your Learning Set. These are supervision/clinical case discussion group meetings facilitated by a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. In these meetings you will take it in turns with other participants to describe your clinical work with patients and to reflect with other participants on their clinical work. You will also write up a case in both year 1 and year 2.  

All other stage one modules are a co-requisite to this module. This module is taught in the first and second year of your study.  

 

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of this module is to enable you to deepen your clinical skills by allowing you to learn from staff and each other.In small supervision/clinical case discussion groups, you will follow clinical cases on a regular basis, facilitated by a senior clinical supervisor. 

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

  • 1. Critically reflect upon patients’ clinical material, upon your own clinical work, and upon the therapeutic process more generally (thus building future supervision skills) to gain a detailed understanding of applicable techniques and processes for your area of professional practice.
  • 2. Critically reflect upon other practitioners’ clinical work and therapeutic processes more generally, in a facilitating and supportive manner (thus building on future supervision skills).
  • 3. Develop the capacity to monitor, understand and discuss your own learning processes as a psychotherapist in training.
  • 4. Draw upon a range of theoretical and clinical perspectives and use these to inform your understanding of your own and other clinicians’ clinical practice and to integrate these within the clinical supervisory relationship; to digest and select amongst the multiple perspectives provided by other programme members and by your supervisor(s) when reviewing your own and others’ clinical work.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

  • 5. Organise a coherent record of your clinical work with training cases, selecting and focusing on salient aspects of your own learning and development and of patients’ development in order to gain a systematic acquisition and understanding of a substantial body of knowledge which is at the forefront of your area of professional practice.
  • 6. Link theoretical concepts with actual clinical experience to aid the creation and interpretation of new knowledge.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

  • 7. Use self-reflection effectively in your work with patients and in your own development.
  • 8. Work collaboratively and constructively with other group members to aid the creation and interpretation of new knowledge and a detailed understanding of applicable techniques and advanced academic study.
  • 9. Develop the capacity for personal awareness both clinically and personally as a central pillar for psychoanalytically informed clinical work, as well as using this to monitor the effectiveness of the therapeutic process.

Syllabus plan

In these seminars you will be introduced and then go on to deepen your understanding of Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic clinical practice. Subjects studied will include:   

  1. The conditions necessary to a setting in which psychoanalytic psychotherapy can take place, including in different treatment contexts, with different kinds of patients, presenting with different kinds of difficulties.   

  1. Establishing an analytic ‘frame’.  

  1. Developing an analytic attitude.  

  1. Free association.  

  1. The manifest and the latent content of the patients’ communications.   

  1. Defences and resistance. 

  1. Transference and Countertransference.  

  1. Working on the transference and working in the transference. 

  1. Regression, benign and malignant. 

  1. Risk, acting-out and acting-in.  

  1. Confidentiality, note keeping, report writing, data protections and communication with third parties. 

  1. The therapist working in a multidisciplinary setting. 

  1. The ethical psychotherapist. 

  1. Diversity. 

Guided and self-directed reading and regular presentations to group in workshop format. 

Clinical case presentation and facilitated group discussion with peers. 

Completion of written case studies. 

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
802200

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching activities 80Seminars/discussions within the whole group (1.25 x 64 hours)
Guided Independent Study220Reading and preparation for assignments

Formative assessment

Form of assessmentSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Seminar participation Ongoing throughout module 1-8Formative Oral feedback from staff and peers
Formal presentation of clinical work in the Clinical Seminar part of the Learning Sets 75 minutes1-8Formative Oral feedback from staff and peers

Summative assessment (% of credit)

CourseworkWritten examsPractical exams
10000

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment% of creditSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Year 1 Write up of a case that demonstrates understanding of a specific clinical phenomenon or psychoanalytic process as it occurs in the treatment 503000 words1-8Written feedback
Year 2 Write up of a case that demonstrates understanding of another specific clinical phenomenon or psychoanalytic process as it occurs in the treatment 503000 words1-8Written feedback
0
0
0
0

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessmentForm of re-assessmentILOs re-assessedTimescale for re-assessment
Year 1 Write up of a case that demonstrates understanding of a specific clinical phenomenon or psychoanalytic process as it occurs in the treatment 3,000 words1-8Minor amendments 4 weeks; Major amendments 8 weeks
Year 2 Write up of a case that demonstrates understanding of another specific clinical phenomenon or psychoanalytic process as it occurs in the treatment 3,000 words1-8Minor Amendments 4 weeks Major amendments 8 weeks

Re-assessment notes

In relation to your Clinical Seminars and Reflective Practice I assignment submissions, where you have been given amendments, major or minor, you will have the opportunity to submit an amended version of your Report, which addresses the points made in the feedback you are given, by the marker(s) and moderator. You must also write a letter to the marker, accompanying your resubmission, which describes how you have addressed the points made in the feedback. You will have 4 weeks to complete minor amendments and 8 weeks to complete major amendments.  

If you have major amendments and your resubmission is marked as needing minor amendments, you will then have 4 weeks to resubmit a second time. If you have minor amendments and if on re-marking your resubmission still requires minor amendments, you will gain a ‘fail’ mark. If you fail an assignment you will be given the opportunity to submit a completely new submission and will have 8 weeks to do this in.  

If you again fail,you will then have failed in the module and consequently you will have failed the programme also and your registration as a student of the University will be terminated.  

More information regarding assessment of pre-dissertation modules can be found here: http://as.exeter.ac.uk/academic-policy-standards/tqa-manual/pgr/professionaldoctoratepgr/#assess including the Flowchart of professional doctorate assessment process. 

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Core reading: 

  • Bion, W.R. (1967) ‘Attacks on Linking’ in ‘Second Thoughts’, (London: Karnac) 

  • Casement, P. (1985) On Learning from the Patient. (London: Routledge). 

  • Freud, S. (1905) ‘Three Essays on Sexuality’. Standard Ed VII 

  • Freud, S. (1910) ‘The Future Prospects of Psycho-Analytic Therapy’. Standard Ed XI, 144 – 5 

  • Freud (1915) ‘The Unconscious’ Standard Ed XIV 

  • Freud, S. (1920) ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principal’. Standard Ed XVIII. 

  • Freud, S. (1923) ‘The Ego and the Id’ Standard Ed XIX. 

  • Hinshelwood, R. (1989) ‘A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought’. (London: Free Association Books). 

  • Holmes, J. (2005) Notes on Mentalizing – Old Hat or New Wine? British Journal of Psychotherapy Vol 22. 2 p179 – 198 

  • Jung, C.G. (1916) ‘The Psychology of the Unconscious’ CW7 

  • Klein, M. (1946). ‘Some notes on some schizoid mechanisms’ in Melanie Klein, Paula Heimann, Susan Isaacs, J Riviere eds (1952)‘Developments in Psychoanalysis’, (London: Hogarth Press). 

  • Lomax, J., Andrews,L., and Burrus J. (2005) ‘Supervision’ in G. Gabbard, J. S. Beck, and J. Holmes (eds.) Oxford Textbook of Psychotherapy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

  • Racker, H. (1968) Transference and Countertransference; London Karnac Books, 

  • Rosenfeld, H. (1987) ‘Impasse and Interpretation’ (London: Routledge) 

  • Searles, Harold F. (1979) Countertransference and related subjects; selected papers. New York, International Universities Press,  

  • Weiner, J., Mizen.R., Duckham, J. (2003) Supervising and being Supervised: A Practice in Search of a Theory. London Palgrave Macmillan 

  • Winnicott, D. W. (1947) ‘Hate in the Counter-transference’ in Through Pediatrics to Psychoanalysis pp.193-194 London Hogarth Press 

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE – you can find methodology references, lecture PowerPoints (usually with references on the final slide) and guides to research. 

Key words search

Psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, psychotherapy, therapy, clinical analysis 

Credit value30
Module ECTS

15

Module pre-requisites

None

Module co-requisites

All other stage one modules are a co-requisite to this module.

NQF level (module)

8

Available as distance learning?

No

Origin date

27/08/2021

Last revision date

01/02/2023