This course is a foundation course in the Bachelor of Social Science. Well-developed communication skills are vital when working in mental health & wellbeing, psychological or youth work settings. This course will introduce you to various theories of communication that will inform your developing practice and prepare you for the program and experience ahead. You will learn useful communication strategies such as active and deep listening, paraphrasing, building rapport and engagement, and working with silence. This course will help you understand the many various ways humans communicate, the majority of which is non-verbal. 

This course will explore various communication registers; for example, levels of formality and styles of language which may need to differ from context to context. Cultural, academic, digital and professional contexts will be explored by inquiring into selfhood and why people might communicate (or not) in specific ways. 

At the end of this course, you should be prepared to engage in fruitful communication with peers, academic staff, future service users and colleagues and understand the dialogic undertones of all communication.