Unit Code: PHP604

Unit Name: Counselling and MI for Health Professionals

Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce you counseling and motivational interview. Counselling is an important element in helping people who encounters biopsychosocial problems and helping clients in rehabilitation to achieve the people’s wellbeing. Due to the many problems that we have in the Pacific, this course will increase students’ awareness on the field of counseling, including its evolution, processes, theories and specialties. Counseling skills help the future health professional to empower patients or clients to manage their problems more effectively. Students get to explore many facets of counseling; they learn to identify which counseling strategy they are comfortable with and which they inevitably adopt as part of the nature of their practice in the future. Given the diverse background of students taking this course will help enable the students to apply the counseling skills acquired to different health settings, according to their expertise. Motivational interviewing is a counseling method that helps people resolve ambivalent feelings and insecurities to find the internal motivation they need to change their behavior. It is a practical, empathetic, and short-term process that takes into consideration how difficult it is to make life changes. Motivational interviewing is person-centered, or client-centered, approach to counseling and therapy, as a method to help people commit to the difficult process of change. Research shows that motivational interviewing is effective in many contexts, including substance use disorder, smoking, weight loss and NCD disease care.

Learning Target Outcomes:

Prerequisite: NA

Prerequisite Sentence: N/A

Credit Point: 15

Offered In: Semester 1