MC Program Outcomes and Disciplinary Competencies

The Master of Counselling Program within the Faculty of Health Disciplines, Athabasca University, has been designed using a competency-based model in which all courses are built with specific learning outcomes in mind. These learning outcomes are clustered into two groups:

The purpose of this webpage is to introduce the Transdisciplinary Program Outcomes and the Disciplinary Competencies addressed through the Master of Counselling Program. This information is intended for prospective and current students, instructors, practicum supervisors, and certification and regulatory bodies. Each of these outcomes and competencies is systematically addressed in a purposeful and incremental way as learners progress through the program. The links below provide an overall picture of the Master of Counselling program outcomes and competencies.

There are seven program level Transdisciplinary Program Outcomes for the Master of Counselling. Successful completion of the core courses and practicum will enable learners to enact competently the following attitudes, knowledge, and skills.

Disciplinary competence Demonstrate entry-to-practice proficiency with counselling psychology disciplinary competencies.
Knowledge acquisition Evaluate critically and integrate knowledge from a range of scholarly sources and disciplines.
Knowledge application Analyze critically, synthesize, and competently apply knowledge to academic and professional tasks and roles.
Knowledge transfer Communicate and share knowledge effectively, professionally, honestly, and with integrity.
Leadership & interpersonal relationships Model respect, professionalism, and socially responsible leadership in relationships with individuals and systems.
Professional capacity & autonomy Assume responsibility for your own learning, and engage in reflective practice to support continued competency development.
Digital competence Capitalize effectively on technology for knowledge transfer, interpersonal communication, and collaboration.

Each of these program-level outcomes is broken down into a number of course-level outcomes, which form the foundation for the Master of Counselling curriculum design. These course-level outcomes are developed and assessed at various points in the program. Click on the links below to reveal the course-level outcomes for each Transdisciplinary Program Outcome.


Transdisciplinary Program Outcomes
Disciplinary competence. Demonstrate entry-to-practice proficiency with counselling psychology disciplinary competencies.
Entry-to-practice competency	Meet entry-to-practice level competencies as designated by relevant national and provincial or territorial organizations.
Educational qualifications	Meet requirements to participate in further education in the field of study or related fields.
Knowledge acquisition. Evaluate critically and integrate knowledge from a range of scholarly sources and disciplines.
Breadth & depth of knowledge	Analyze critically and systematically the breadth and depth of knowledge in your health-related academic discipline or professional practice area, including emerging trends.
Complexity of knowledge	Acknowledge the complexity of knowledge and the potential of other worldviews, interpretations, ways of knowing, and disciplines to contribute to knowledge.
Cognitive complexity	Be tolerant of ambiguity, and cultivate cognitive complexity to enable you to see beyond your own values, worldview, and sociocultural contexts.
Interdisciplinary knowledge & collaboration	Value interdisciplinary knowledge and promote interprofessional collaboration.
Methods of inquiry	Compare and contrast various approaches to, and methods of, research inquiry.
Scholarly foundation	Select appropriate information sources, including discerning the credibility of Internet, and evaluate critically the quality of current research and scholarship.
Knowledge application. Analyze critically, synthesize, and competently apply knowledge to academic and professional tasks and roles.
Critical analysis	Demonstrate critical reading, thinking, and writing.
Knowledge creation	Participate in the creation of health-related knowledge through original and creative thinking and writing.
Synthesis & Integration	Integrate, critique, and synthesize the professional literature.
Thesis & arguments	Articulate and support an original thesis and sustained, well-reasoned arguments.
Application of knowledge to complex issues	Address complex issues and judgments successfully based on established principles, policies, and protocols.
Generalization of knowledge	Analyze critically, apply, and generalize knowledge to new questions, problems, or contexts.
Cultural responsivity	Assess critically the relevance and cultural responsivity of the application of knowledge within individual, family, community, social, and global contexts.
Knowledge transfer. Communicate and share knowledge effectively, professionally, honestly, and with integrity.
Effective communication	Communicate ideas clearly, succinctly, and effectively to interdisciplinary, specialist, and nonspecialist audiences.
Verbal & nonverbal communication	Evaluate and apply appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication skills to engage with individuals, groups, and broader systems.
Teaching & learning	Implement teaching and learning strategies effectively.
Dissemination of knowledge	Synthesize, organize, create, and distribute knowledge in a variety of forms (e.g., electronic, written, oral, visual) to make it available to other users.
Professional writing	Apply academic and professional writing principles and standards consistently, using the appropriate discipline-specific style (i.e., Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association).
Intellectual honesty & scholarly integrity	Demonstrate intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity; in particular, attribute ideas to their sources accurately, and use the appropriate discipline-specific style (i.e., Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association).
Leadership & interpersonal relationships. Model respect, professionalism, and socially responsible leadership in relationships with individuals and systems.
Cultural diversity	Value, respect, and be responsive to cultural diversity.
Professional conduct	Conduct yourself in a professional manner across all settings and situations.
Positive relationships	Develop and maintain effective relationships, and interact in a positive solution-focused manner.
Collaboration	Collaborate respectfully and effectively with clients, peers, colleagues, and systems.
Leadership	Demonstrate leadership in complex and unpredictable environments within organizations, communities, and the profession.
Conflict resolution	Navigate conflict, and negotiate differences in perspective, effectively and respectfully.
Social justice	Take action to safeguard the welfare of others and to promote social justice.
Professional capacity & autonomy. Assume responsibility for your own learning, and engage in reflective practice to support continued competency development.
Responsibility & accountability	Exercise initiative, and demonstrate both personal responsibility and accountability.
Ethical decision-making	Demonstrate sound judgment, and engage in ethical decision-making, related to complex problems or situations.
Professional values & integrity	Evaluate critically and resolve situations that challenge professional values and integrity.
Self-directed learning	Assume responsibility for, and engage in, self-directed learning.
Constructivist learning	Promote actively creative, purposeful, contextualized, and collaborative constructive learning processes.
Intellectual independence	Demonstrate the intellectual independence required for ongoing professional development.
Self-awareness	Value self-awareness, and engage actively in continued exploration of your values, beliefs, and assumptions.
Reflective practice	Engage in critical reflectivity both during and after professional activity, and act upon these reflections.
Continuing competency	Self-assess competence accurately, recognize current limitations of competence, and plan appropriately to enhance attitudes, knowledge, and skills.
Self-care	Self-monitor the need for self-care, and intervene promptly when professional competency may be compromised.
Digital competence. Capitalize effectively on technology for knowledge transfer, and interpersonal communication, and collaboration.
Information technology	Select and apply contemporary and emerging information technology to support scholarship, leadership, communication, and knowledge translation and development.
Digital identity	Establish a professional digital identity and presence through appropriate use of technology, social media, and web resources.
Multimedia & digital communication	Communicate ideas, issues, and conclusions effectively and professionally in a variety of forms (e.g., internet, social media, audiovisual, blogging).
Technology-mediated interaction	Interact effectively and professionally with peers, supervisors, and instructors through technology-mediated platforms (e.g., email, digital forums, videoconferencing, collaboration software).
Digital ethics and security	Evaluate critically the use of digital platforms in terms of ethics and information security.

There are 16 Disciplinary Competencies for the Master of Counselling. Successful completion of the core courses and practicum will enable learners to enact competently the following attitudes, knowledge, and skills.

Counselling models. Analyze critically existing models of counselling and client change.
Counselling Model implementation. Apply theoretical lenses in a purposeful and systematic way in work with clients.
Culture. Acknowledge the ubiquitous nature of culture in counselling.
Social justice. Challenge social injustices, and critique their impact on client–counsellor social locations.
Ethics & standards. Evaluate critically and apply ethical and legal standards, principles, and guidelines.
Ethical decision-making. Articulate, critique, and apply a model of culturally responsive and socially just ethical decision making.
Professional identity. Embrace values-based practice as a foundation for professional identity.
Responsive relationships. Engage in evidence-based, culturally responsive, and socially just relational practices.
Challenges & preferences. Implement counselling microskills and techniques, intentionally and responsively, to co-construct shared understanding of client challenges and identify preferred futures.
Assessment. Analyze critically, select, and apply appropriate assessment processes, tools, and techniques.
Collaborative conceptualization. Collaborate with clients to apply culturally responsive, contextualized/systemic, and strengths-based lenses to conceptualizing client lived experiences.
Therapeutic directions. Implement counselling techniques and strategies, intentionally and responsively, to co-construct clear directions for the counselling process.
Responsive change processes. Engage in evidence-based, culturally responsive, and socially just change processes.
Outcomes assessment. Track and evaluate counselling progress and outcomes.
Role of research/evaluation: Analyze critically the scientific foundation of the counselling psychology profession.
Research/evaluation processes. Evaluate and apply the principles, processes, and steps involved in various approaches to research and evaluation.

Each of these program-level competencies is broken down into a number of course-level competencies, which form the foundation for the Master of Counselling curriculum design. These course-level competencies are developed and assessed at various points in the program. Click on the links below to reveal the course-level competencies for each Disciplinary Competencies.


Disciplinary Competencies
Counselling models. Analyze critically existing models of counselling and client change.
Role of counselling models	Evaluate the role of counselling models in effective counselling practice.
Sociohistorical contexts of counselling models	Reflect critically on the sociohistorical contextual foundations of prevailing counselling models.
Cultural contexts of counselling models	Assess the roles that culture and context, broadly defined, play in giving shape to theories and models of counselling.
Assumptions about change	Analyze critically and deconstruct the major assumptions that underpin models of counselling and client change.
Evidence-based practice	Analyze critically the evidence-based practice movement in counselling.
Common factors	Analyze critically, and evaluate the relevance of, the common factors in therapeutic change.
Critical deconstruction	Apply a process of critical deconstruction to the analysis and evaluation of counselling models.
Counselling model implementation. Apply theoretical lenses in a purposeful and systematic way in work with clients.
Client factors	Integrate counselling models and research evidence related to client needs and preferences into counselling practice.
Therapist factors	Assess the role that therapist characteristics play in facilitating positive counselling outcomes.
Theoretical flexibility	Demonstrate an open, flexible, and appreciative stance toward multiple and varied counselling models.
Theoretical positioning	Develop an integrative theoretical positioning that is responsive to diverse client issues, cultural identities, and contexts.
Culture. Acknowledge the ubiquitous nature of culture in counselling.
Cultural self-exploration	Engage in cultural self-exploration as a foundation for cultural sensitivity toward client cultural identities and relationalities.
Intersectionality	Appreciate, and reflect critically on, the complexity and intersectionality of cultural identities and relationalities.
Cultural identity development	Articulate the relationship between social location and cultural identity development and management.
Culturally responsive practice	Embrace counsellor ways of being and counselling practices to honour, and be responsive to, the cultural identities, worldviews, and social locations of the client.
Social justice. Challenge social injustices, and critique their impact on client–counsellor social locations.
Social injustices	Attend actively to social determinants of health, and evaluate the impact of social injustices on client health and well-being.
Power & privilege	Assess critically the impact of power and privilege on client–counsellor social locations.
Cross-cultural transitioning	Analyze critically the impact of cross-cultural transitioning and social injustices on cultural identity and relationality.
Socially just practice	Critically analyze the influence of dominant sociocultural discourses and norms on theory and practice, and actively promote socially-just counselling.
Ethics & standards. Evaluate critically and apply ethical and legal standards, principles, and guidelines.
Ethical theory	Analyze critically foundational ethical theory.
Professional regulation	Articulate the role that professional regulation plays in promoting ethical practice.
Legal expectations	Identify and integrate law and legal issues that inform ethical practice.
Informed consent	Identify and reflect critically on the central role of informed consent within ethical practice.
Confidentiality	Identify and reflect critically on the central role of confidentiality within ethical practice.
Ethical practice within systems	Identify and reflect critically on the parameters of ethical practice from a systems perspective.
Professional boundaries	Identify and reflect critically on the central role that professional boundaries play in creating and maintaining ethical relationships.
Ethical decision-making: Articulate, critique, and apply a model of culturally responsive and socially just ethical decision making.
Culture & ethical practice	Reflect critically on the intersection between cultural beliefs and values, and ethical practice.
Social justice & ethical practice	Articulate the central role that social justice plays in ethical practice.
Ethical decision-making models	Analyze critically and apply various ethical decision-making models, noting strengths and limitations associated with each.
Ethical decision-making contextual factors	Identify and integrate personal, organizational, and institutional factors that influence the ethical decision-making process.
Professional identity. Embrace values-based practice as a foundation for professional identity.
Values-based practice	Articulate and demonstrate attitudes, values, behaviours, and comportment that reflect the values and virtues of professional counselling and psychology.
Client worldviews	Value the diversity of worldviews, and prioritize client beliefs, values, and assumptions.
Social change	Assume an anti-oppressive and justice-doing stance that advances social change.
Scholar-practitioner-advocate-leader	Embody social justice values as a foundation for commitment to scholar-practitioner-advocate-leader professional identity.
Responsive relationships. Engage in evidence-based, culturally responsive, and socially just relational practices.
Evidence-based relationships	Position the client–counsellor relationship within the body of evidence on what works in counselling and psychotherapy.
Relational practice	Optimize the growth-fostering potential of the client–counsellor relationship.
Therapeutic conversations	Articulate the distinguishing features of, and engage consistently in, therapeutic conversations with clients.
Salience of culture & social location	Assess the salience and the interplay of client–counsellor cultural identities and social locations.
Shared power	Nurture collaborative and mutual, power-sharing relationships with clients.
Challenges & preferences. Implement counselling microskills and techniques, intentionally and responsively, to co-construct shared understanding of client challenges and to identify preferred futures.
Counselling microskills and techniques	Select and implement purposefully various counselling microskills and techniques to support responsive client-counsellor relationships and counselling processes.
Co-construction of meaning	Facilitate co-construction of meaning though dialogue by applying counselling microskills and techniques in an intentional, culturally responsive, and collaborative manner.
Current challenges	Collaborate to co-construct a multidimensional and contextualized shared understanding of client challenges.
Preferred futures	Collaborate to co-construct preferred futures that are responsive to salient dimensions of client identities, worldviews, values, and social locations.
Assessment. Analyze critically, select, and apply appropriate assessment processes, tools, and techniques.
Nature & purpose of assessment	Evaluate critically the nature and purpose of assessment.
General assessment processes	Evaluate critically standardized and nonstandardized assessment processes, tools, and techniques.
Client-specific assessment processes	Design and implement assessment processes in collaboration with the client.
Assessment tools theory	Explain the basic concepts of psychometric theory and test construction.
Assessment practice	Develop and demonstrate assessment interviews for specific contexts and problems.
Responsivity to risk	Conduct an appropriate risk assessment that balances the needs for client safety and protection of the public.
Diagnostic systems	Evaluate critically the role of psychiatric diagnosis in assessment.
Collaborative conceptualization. Collaborate with clients to apply culturally responsive, contextualized/systemic, and strengths-based lenses to conceptualizing client lived experiences.
Metatheoretical & theoretical lenses	Establish culturally responsive and socially just metatheoretical and theoretical lenses.
Counselling framework	Articulate and apply a framework for general assessment, case conceptualization, and intervention planning, grounded in specific counselling concepts and principles.
Assessment integration	Integrate and make inferences from multiple sources of assessment data to inform case conceptualization and intervention planning.
Conceptualization of client lived experiences	Collaborate with clients to connect current challenges, preferred futures, therapeutic directions, and change processes in a theoretically congruent, responsive, and client-centred way.
Therapeutic directions. Implement counselling techniques and strategies, intentionally and responsively, to co-construct clear directions for the counselling process.
Contextualized/systemic lens	Position client current challenges, preferred futures, and therapeutic directions within the context of culture, social location, and other systemic factors.
Locus of control	Collaborate with clients to assess critically the locus of control or responsibility for their challenges and the corresponding locus of change.
Therapeutic directions	Collaborate with clients to co-construct clear directions for the counselling process by effectively implementing client-centred and culturally responsive counselling techniques and strategies.
Responsive change processes. Engage in evidence-based, culturally responsive, and socially just change processes.
Evidence-based change	Position change processes within the body of evidence on what works in counselling and psychotherapy.
Responsive change processes	Implement an integrative decision-making model for designing responsive change processes for each individual client.
Levels of intervention	Collaborate to target levels of intervention and to co-construct change processes that are responsive to culture and social location.
Change techniques & strategies	Collaborate with clients to facilitate change by effectively implementing specific counselling techniques and strategies.
Responsive microlevel change	Engage in culturally responsive and socially just change processes at the microlevel (i.e., individuals, couples, and families) in collaboration with clients.
Responsive mesolevel change	Engage in culturally responsive and socially just change processes at the mesolevel (i.e., schools, organizations, and communities) in collaboration with, or on behalf of, clients.
Responsive macrolevel change	Engage in culturally responsive and socially just change processes at the macrolevel (i.e., broad social, economic, and political systems) on behalf of clients.
Outcomes assessment. Track and evaluate counselling progress and outcomes.
Client feedback	Assess the role that client feedback plays in facilitating positive counselling outcomes.
Practice-based evidence	Draw on practice-based evidence, to evaluate the efficacy of counselling techniques and strategies that support change.
Microlevel outcomes assessment	Evaluate change processes and outcomes at the microlevel (i.e., individuals, couples, and families) in collaboration with clients.
Meso & macrolevel outcomes assessment	Evaluate change processes and outcomes at the meso (i.e., schools, organizations, and communities) and macrolevels (i.e., broad social, economic, and political systems) in collaboration with, or on behalf of, clients.
Role of research & evaluation. Analyze critically the scientific foundation of the counselling psychology profession.
Scientific foundation	Reflect critically on the scientific underpinnings of the health disciplines.
Nature & purpose of research/evaluation	Position inquiry relative to the nature and purpose of research and evaluation.
Application of research/ evaluation	Analyze critically the relationship between research/evaluation and practice.
Scholarly foundation for research/ evaluation	Position research/evaluation within the existing body of health disciplines knowledge and/or community or societal needs.
Research & evaluation processes. Evaluate and apply the principles, processes, and steps involved in various approaches to research and evaluation.
Philosophical lenses in research/ evaluation	Compare and evaluate philosophical viewpoints in research and evaluation.
Philosophical contexts of methods of inquiry	Articulate the relationship of these philosophical viewpoints to methods of inquiry.
Steps in research & evaluation	Evaluate critically the steps in designing research and evaluation.
Responsive research design	Assess critically the influence of research ethics, cultural diversity, and practical concerns on research design.
Qualitative methods	Analyze critically, and discriminate between, a range of qualitative research methods.
Quantitative methods	Analyze critically, and discriminate, between a range of quantitative research methods.
Methodological congruence & integrity	Ensure methodological congruence and integrity in research and evaluation.
Evaluating research & evaluation	Establish criteria for evaluating research and evaluation projects.
Disseminating research & evaluation	Analyze the components of various research or evaluation documents.