Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SSW CP 762: Advanced Group Work
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This advanced group work course is designed for social work students who desire further learning in group practice, to deepen their understanding of the group work method in social work, and for students interested in leadership and supervision roles. Group Work as a method is far-reaching and is utilized across the spectrum of practice, from the micro and clinical interventions to the organizational and macro interventions. The aim of the course is to deepen students' understanding of group dynamics, theories, and method, with a special emphasis on the group-as-a-whole. The relationship between the group and its environment will be woven throughout the course, as will ethics and issues of diversity and difference--class, age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, etc.. Organizationally, the course examines the worker's use of self, the group, program, research, and the environment (although in real life, these aspects of group life are used simultaneously).
• SSW CP 764: Group Dynamics
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This advanced seminar in group modalities and dynamics is designed for social work students who are planning to work with groups of various types and sizes and for those advanced students who wish to further their group work experience. The aim of the seminar is to deepen students' knowledge base and practice with group dynamics and selected group work modalities. The relationship among the group members and between members and the group facilitator(s) is a significant focus in the seminar. Throughout the seminar, emphasis is placed on enhancing students' understanding, application and evaluation of evidence-based group work (EBGW). Attending to issues of ethics and issues of diversity--class, age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation -- are woven throughout the seminar. The seminar is organized to include opportunities for a critical analysis of group dynamics, single-session experiential groups, and various group exercises. Priority is given to the further development of the professional 'group worker' in roles as leader, consultant and presenter. A highlighted component of the seminar includes Guest Presenters who are expert in specific group work modalities and/or with specific populations. The Presenters will aid the students in the seminar to hone a deeper understanding of facilitator interventions and use of self in the group setting.
• SSW CP 782: Stress and Trauma in The Early Years: Interventions with Young Children and Families
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This course focuses on interventions for effective practice with young children and families derived from the fields of infant mental health, early development and family systems. Students will gain competency in developmentally appropriate assessment and collaborative evidence-informed/evidence-based treatment of vulnerable young children and their families within an attachment, trauma and systems framework. The role of toxic stress and trauma in a child's development and family life will be explored; prevention and intervention approaches will address how best to ameliorate its harmful impact. Various approaches will be presented and examined in relationship to theories of change, differential assessment, resilience, culturally responsive practice, and privilege. Because the practitioner plays an important role in the change process, students are expected to use the self to engage with course material and deepen their reflective capacities with regard to the clinician-client relationship. Class time will include discussion of course readings, viewing videos, conducting case-based assessments, skills development and other interactive activities. Students will leave the course with a repertoire of analytic and clinical skills to support their practice with vulnerable young children and their families.
• SSW CP 785: Family Therapy
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This advanced practice course builds on foundation year curricula and enhances the systemic paradigm shift by providing a broad overview of major family therapy approaches and of contemporary issues in and research on family therapy. Emphasis will be placed on the development of theory, evidence-based models and clinical practice in assessment and intervention with families. Students then concentrate on a few approaches and populations to facilitate developing family- centered therapeutic skills. Possible populations include but are not limited to: impact of trauma on family life and trauma-focused family practice, special issues for foster and adoptive families, substance use and misuse within families and family-centered approaches, clinical practice with military families and clinical approaches to working with LGBTQ families. The usefulness of utilizing a systems perspective to address issues in an urban context of social justice, at risk-populations and the effects of oppression will be embedded throughout the specific topics addressed in this course. Attention also will be given to diverse client systems and students are encouraged to bring up individuals and families they are working with for class discussion. Students observe and study videotapes of family therapists to practice assessment skills, develop an understanding of evidence-based clinical interventions and build proficiency in helping families with communication, organization and expression of feelings. They also explore and evaluate how the different models fit their own personal style. Class participation, including mini-exercises, role-plays, and discussion, will play a large role in augmenting reading assignments, lectures, and tapes.
• SSW CP 787: Clinical Practice with Couples
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This course provides an overview of the major theories and techniques of couples and marital therapy with an emphasis on empirically validated approaches to practice with couples. Throughout the course we incorporate an ecological understanding of family systems within the context of the multiple systems in which couple and family life is lived. Specific attention will be paid to the needs of the following populations; same-sex couples, inter-racial and inter- cultural couples; couples who have experienced physical aggression and infidelity; and couples living with chronic illness, histories of sexual abuse, and substance abuse. Students will explore and evaluate how the different models of social work practice with couples fit their own personal styles. Mini-exercises, skill-practice and class discussion play a significant role, as do lectures and viewing videotapes. As a group, students provide an in-class, theory-based instructional presentation and demonstration of a couples counseling session.
• SSW CP 791: Seminar in Anti-Oppressive Practice in Families and Communities
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This seminar will provide a contemporary overview of anti-oppressive practices with families, individuals, and communities. The focus of this advanced seminar will be the application of theory to specific practices and skills for use with clients and community members. Students will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge base around liberation health, common factors family therapy, structural family therapy, narrative therapy, harm reduction, and transformational justice practice. Strengths and Challenges of each model will be discussed and reviewed. During the second half of the seminar, students will be introduced to several anti-oppressive community / macro practices, including power mapping, one on one organizing conversations, and developing strategy and tactics. To help integrate conceptual frameworks into ongoing social work practice, we will utilize reflecting teams to help students develop new ideas and approaches with their current caseloads. Particular attention will be focused on intervention / action planning. Students will have the opportunity to choose 3-4 special topics to study. These topics may include community trauma, substance misuse, drama therapy, and storytelling for justice.
• SSW CP 794: Clinical Practice with Children
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This advanced practice course builds upon foundation courses and is designed to help students think about the breadth of clinical practice with children and adolescents using theoretical knowledge and practice skills and with consideration of development, trauma, contexts, and systems. Multidisciplinary perspectives and approaches including developmental, biopsychological, and systems/ecological approaches are utilized to understand the strengths and needs of children and adolescents with contexts and systems (e.g., schools, communities). Knowledge, practice skills, and ethics related to engagement, assessment, prevention, intervention, and treatment of diverse children and adolescents will be emphasized. In this course, students will learn about the theory, concepts, and research that are foundational to clinical practice. They will learn about seminal developmental theories that contribute to understanding of developmental processes and outcomes as well as identity formation. There will be a focus on understanding the systems and contexts that children and adolescents interact with to help students collaborate with systems and advocate for their clients. In addition, students will learn about decision-making related to selecting evidence-based and practice-based interventions appropriate for children and adolescents. Social justice will be heavily emphasized, and clinical work will be discussed using an anti-oppressive lens; students will be encouraged to engage in social justice advocacy for their clients and communities. Also, students will use a trauma-informed lens to learn about engagement, assessment, and treatment. Lastly, there will be a strong focus on self-reflection and reflection about the role of social workers, their relationship with their clients, and interactions with systems and contexts. Class time will include discussion of course readings, viewing videos, conducting case assessments, skills development, viewing videos, role-plays, policy presentations, and other interactive activities.
• SSW CP 795: Cognitive and Behavioral Treatment
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This elective course is designed to deepen practice knowledge and experience with cognitive and behavioral theory and treatment (CBT) for children and adults, that were introduced briefly in CP756 (Social Work Practice with Individuals). The course begins with a discussion of CBT, social work values, and social justice mission, and considers the strengths and limitations of CBT in the implementation of inclusive, affirming, anti-racist practice. The introduction also includes an overview of theoretical frameworks that underlie CBT, including cognitive models based mainly on A. T. Beck's theories as well as behavioral theory. The course incorporates Third Wave CBT therapies and forms of CBT including mindfulness based therapies as well as complementary approaches such as motivational interviewing. Cognitive/behavioral analysis (also called case formulation) and assessment of specific challenges as well as strengths, are taught using students' current practice experiences with children and adults. Several intervention methods are illustrated using client examples, video, demonstration and role-play where possible. These include developing a case conceptualization, cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiments, and exposure therapy (desensitization for treatment of anxiety). Discussions will include the application of CBT methods with consideration of structural factors, experiences of marginalization and oppression, the client/therapist relationship, the use of CBT methods in group settings, and ethical issues. For the major assignments, students complete two related paper and video assignments: (1) a cognitive and/or behavioral analysis and assessment of a current client in the student's field placement or work setting and (2) a review of the literature and application of relevant cognitive and/or behavioral intervention(s) related to this client. Two additional credit/no credit assignments involve identifying, assessing, analyzing and intervening with a personal habit or challenge that can be discussed in class. This provides personal experience applying CBT and an opportunity to incorporate self-care.
• SSW CP 798: Psychodynamic Practice with Adults
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This course builds on psychodynamic knowledge and skills gained in the prerequisite courses of CP 755, 756, and 757. Its purpose is to further the learner's understanding of use of professional self and relationships in longer term therapeutic work with a variety of adults at risk due to poverty, domestic and neighborhood violence, lack of social resources, lack of stable and nurturing life path environments, and current barriers to well-being, constructive relating, and self-fulfillment. Object relations, self-psychology, and relational theory inform learning through reading, assignments, class exercises, and case dialogue analysis. Instructor and students problem solve around issues arising in interpersonal work characterized by mutuality and reciprocity between worker and client productive of growth in both. Empathy is practiced as an assessment tool (vicarious introspection), an expression of support and identification, and a medium for the activation of client strengths and growth potentials. Students practice 'being where the client is" in very difficult situations, and the long-term effects of prejudice, injustice, and social marginalization are frequently highlighted in assessments and intervention planning. Students learn to reflect on their own personal development and experiences as potential assets and blocks in aligning themselves well with client stories and reactions. Role plays and assignments help in identifying and correcting misalignments in use of self.
• SSW CP 799: Brief and Time-Effective Treatment
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This course surveys a range of brief and time effective treatment models including crisis intervention/single session interventions, solution focused brief therapy, narrative therapy, and stages of change/motivational interviewing. Students will develop skills in brief treatment that can be used with children, adolescents, families, and adults who present with substance use, trauma, depression, anxiety, domestic violence, and other issues of concern in multi-stressed urban populations. Students will acquire understanding of the theoretical and empirical bases, strengths, and limitations of each model. Use of in-class and videotaped role plays along with small group exercises will help students become more creative, flexible, and accountable in their approaches to treatment, and will direct students away from a deficit (pathology) model towards a resource (possibility) treatment model. Students learn to collaborate with clients to create well-formed treatment goals, and to measure change as it occurs over time. Finally, students explore how their own values and beliefs about change may help or hinder clinical practice in the current health care environment.
• SSW CP 803: Clinical Practice with Adult Trauma
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - Students learn different theoretical approaches to trauma and examine clinical strategies for intervening with traumatized adults from diverse backgrounds. Sources of trauma including natural disasters, the refugee and immigrant experience, interpersonal violence, and the accumulation of traumatic events over the life span are discussed in terms of their physical and emotional consequences. Students examine diagnostic issues including PTSD and complex PTSD, and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Evidence-based interventions and emerging areas of practice with traumatized adult populations will be highlighted. Larger social, cultural and political forces are considered in shaping both exposure to and recovery from traumatic stressors. Finally, the impact of trauma work on clinicians and strategies for self-care and reducing burnout will be a theme of the course.
• SSW CP 804: Clinical Practice with Childhood Trauma
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - Students develop or deepen a working knowledge of different theoretical approaches to trauma and traumatic impact and examine clinical strategies for intervening with traumatized children and adolescents. Multiple types of trauma will be considered ranging from single-incident events to chronic, complex, and developmental trauma. Diagnostic issues, current controversies in the trauma field, and emerging areas of practice with traumatized children and adolescents will be discussed. Emphasis is placed on applying a developmental perspective and on current knowledge regarding the neurobiology of attachment, regulation, and traumatic impact in children and adolescents as the foundation for trauma- focused practice. Students will learn about phase-oriented treatment and study evidence-based models for children from birth through adolescence. Student learning and in-class exercises will focus on developing the specific skills for each model and on case formulation and presentation.
• SSW CP 806: Theory and Practice with LGBTQ Populations
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP759 & SSWCP770 & SSWCP771 & SSWCP772) or permission of department chair. - This is a three credit, advanced practice course which will employ affirmative models of social work practice with LGBTQIA+ individuals, families, and communities. The course builds on CP755 and CP757 (which are recommended but are not prerequisites for this course) in helping students refine their assessment and intervention skills with this particular population. Further, this course helps students apply knowledge of Narrative, trauma-informed, harm reduction, psychodynamic, and self-in-relation approaches to LGBTQIA+ populations. The ecological, Liberation Health, minority stress and strengths-based approaches will provide the theoretical framework for this course, as well as queer theory and constructionist ideas. Course content will be organized within the following five domains: (1) postmodern perspectives on gender and sexual identity and orientation; (2) developmental models for identity development; (3) affirmative social work practice with LGBTQIA+ populations; (4) intersectionality, race and ethnicity, families, youth, and aging; and (5) specific challenges facing the LGBTQIA+ communities such as trauma, intimate partner and community-based violence, substance misuse, HIV/AIDS, and how to make agencies safe for LGBTQIA+ clients and staff. Material for this course will include theoretical readings, relevant research, first person narratives, movies, and expert speakers representing human service agencies serving LGBTQIA+ individuals and families.
• SSW CP 807: Clinical Practice with Older Adults
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - This course reviews life cycle and other developmental theories informing clinical practice with aging populations. Discussion highlights the impact of poverty, racism, ageism, and changing economics on the bio-psycho-social phenomenology of aging in urban environments. Special issues related to mental health, substance abuse, and cognitive impairment in this population are reviewed. Students learn methods for interviewing, assessing, diagnosing and intervening with older people, their families, and their networks are taught through case analysis and role play.
• SSW CP 809: Substance Use Disorders: Assessment and Intervention
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - The course is designed to teach the basic foundations of how to understand and work with individuals with unhealthy substance use. A multi-level approach will be used to examine individual and social influences on unhealthy substance use. Students will learn evidence-based methods for screening, assessment, diagnosis, and intervention for substance use ranging from unhealthy to meeting criteria for substance use disorder (SUD), as well as harm reduction approaches. A social justice lens will be used to analyze the issues and problems associated with unhealthy substance use. The course builds on CP756: Social Work Practice with Individuals and CP757: Social Work Practice with Families and on CP 781, Clinical Assessment and Intervention, in teaching Motivational Interviewing (based on Rogerian and behavioral approaches) and relapse prevention (based on cognitive behavioral therapy). Teaching methods include lecture, small group activities, skill practice, video demonstrations, and case study analysis.
• SSW CP 814: Advanced Trauma Seminar
  Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWCP755 & SSWCP756 & SSWCP757) For Traditional Track and HSE Students ; Graduate Corequisites: (SSWCP755 OR SSWCP756 OR SSWCP757)For Advanced Standing Students - The Advanced Trauma Seminar is designed for students to deepen their knowledge of the impact of trauma, increase their skill set in the treatment of diverse people who have experienced trauma, and examine the impact of systems and societal inequality on both people who have experienced trauma and their related clinical care. Multiple conceptualizations of trauma, inequality, and mental health will be discussed, with associations between micro- and macro-level harm and healing being emphasized. This course builds on CP 803 & CP 804, with emphases on critical thinking as it relates to relational harm and healing. Foundations of the course include respect for client agency and autonomy, as well as institutionalized self-care. We will contextualize trauma-related mental health through examining intersectionality, sexual violence, relational harm of interpersonal trauma, and marginalized perspectives on mental health and healing. We will additionally focus on relational approaches to therapy and addressing systems of oppression within therapy. Finally, we will revisit ethics in therapy and identify social workers' roles in advocating for social justice for their clients through macro-level change.
• SSW ET 753: Ethics and the Social Work Profession
  This required seminar is intended to inspire the moral imagination of social work students, and prepare them for competent and compassionate ethical practice as professionals. Ethics and the Social Work Profession (ET 753), examines the issues of social work professionalism, the process of becoming a social work professional, the tensions inherent in the goals of social work, and the ways these interrelate to produce conflicts of values and ethics in social work practice. The course focuses on acquiring and practicing the skills of ethical decision-making, including values clarification, application of ethical theory, utilization of codes of ethics, and models of ethical analysis. Both clinical and macro aspects of social work are explored, with an emphasis on the contemporary challenges of practice in multicultural and urban settings. Issues of self-care, impairment, licensure, malpractice, whistle-blowing and other professional challenges are explored. The course is set in the advanced curriculum as an integrative capstone, designed to be concurrent with the student's final semester in the MSW program.
• SSW FE 800: Integrative Field Seminar
  Graduate Prerequisites: Required of Charles River students in their first placement. OCP stude nts should consult their program director. - The focus of this seminar is professional development and the role of the social work intern in the agency. The seminar meets several times each semester. Instructor sets schedule. Attendance is required.
• SSW FE 801: Field Education I
  Graduate Corequisites: (SSWFE800) - Required of all students in their first semester of the first (foundation) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 802: Field Education II
  Graduate Corequisites: (SSWFE800) - Required of all students in their second semester of the first (foundation) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.