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Unit of study_
PSTY5208: The Long Conversation 1B
2025 unit information
This unit provides teaching and supervision for a second semester following The Long Conversation 1A (PSTY5207) to support the clinical experience of running an initial intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy of 2 sessions per week in the Conversational Model. Supervision will centre on listening to audiotaped sessions of the psychotherapy of a patient brought from the student's workplace or allocated from the Westmead Psychotherapy Program, discussing the ongoing developmental and relational formulation and maintenance of the frame, developing work on the middle and ending phases of therapy. Ongoing supervision will focus on the micro-processes of the interaction including attunement, affect, language, states of mind, transference, countertransference and co-transference and separation anxiety. The student will deepen their capacity to work with traumatic states of mind. The aim is to further develop student's skills in sensitive and responsive practice that will foster the conversational flow of the therapy, the development of the therapeutic relationship and the patient's self, facilitating higher levels of reflective capacity and coherence, allowing the integration of trauma. The way the difficult past repeats itself in the therapy is then addressed and work in the co-transference will be explored.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Medicine and Health
| Study level | Postgraduate |
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| Academic unit | Brain and Mind Science |
| Credit points | 3 |
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Prerequisites:
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PSTY5201 and PSTY5207 |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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This unit assumes a working clinical knowledge of basic counselling and mental health, commensurate with a clinician having worked 2 or more years in a setting with general health counselling or mental health clients. |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Understand and be able to develop a clinical formulation emphasizing psychodynamic / developmental principles within a biopsychosocial framework.
- LO2. Identify patients likely to benefit from longer term psychotherapeutic interventions
- LO3. Understand emotional development including biological and psychosocial factors, including complex trauma and dissociation, and apply this knowledge in understanding the presentation of individual patients.
- LO4. Identify potential risks of psychotherapeutic intervention as part of the assessment for psychotherapy.
- LO5. Describe the relational factors that shape the development of self with a particular focus on the interactions of the proto-conversation.
- LO6. Describe the major forms of attachment and their therapeutic implications.
- LO7. Recognize the importance of the therapeutic framework and the need to maintain clear boundaries in all forms of psychotherapy.
- LO8. Identify ethical parameters for the conduct of psychodynamic psychotherapy.
- LO9. Discuss the major principles of psychodynamic therapy including the role of feeling in mental life; trauma and dissociation and implications for development; the growth of self; transference and countertransference.
- LO10. Develop a flexible technique adaptable to a range of specific clinical presentations
- LO11. Recognize and repair disjunctions when they occur.
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 2 2025
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Normal day | Westmead, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Semester 2 2025
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Online | Westmead, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.
