This portfolio demonstrates my on-going personal and professional development as a counselling psychologist over the period of three years. It contains dossiers that cover three different aspects of training namely academic, therapeutic practice and research. The Academic Dossier contains three essays illustrating the diversity of theoretical concepts explored throughout my training. The first essay examines the question of whether we now need to cognitively restructure or accept thoughts in cognitive behavioural therapy. The second essay considers the effectiveness of applying Fairbairn's (1952) object relations theory when working psychodynamically with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. The third essay looks at an existential-phenomenological approach to working with grief. The Therapeutic Practice Dossier relates to my clinical practice and provides the reader with a description of placements and client populations. This dossier also includes a final clinical paper providing an overview of my development as a psychotherapeutic practitioner. Finally the Research Dossier examines the relationship between mindfulness and attentional control. This dossier contains a literature review and two original research reports. The literature review examines the theoretical assumption that mindfulness interventions may enhance attentional control, a core determinant of psychological wellbeing. The first research report investigates whether dispositional mindfulness moderates the relationship between anxiety and attentional control. The second research report investigates whether state mindfulness moderates the relationship between threat and attentional bias.

The present body of work is a portfolio of academic essays, therapeutic practice and research undertaken as part of my Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology at the University of Surrey. It consists of three dossiers each relating to the above areas respectively. The academic dossier contains three selected papers from work completed for the purposes of demonstrating learning from taught modules on 'Theoretical Models of Therapy' and 'Understanding Human Distress'. It is linked thematically by an underlying interest in theoretical integration and cross-fertilisation of concepts pertinent to counselling psychology. The therapeutic practice dossier outlines my clinical experience and includes brief descriptions of the placements and other therapeutic work I undertook throughout my training. It further includes my Final Clinical Paper, which offers an intimate narrative of my heretofore development as a counselling psychologist. The research dossier includes original research conducted in the last three years and makes explicit the rationale for the trajectory I have followed subsequent to exploring the literature on shamanism vis-a-vis psychotherapy. More specifically, it includes a discourse analytic study of representations of psychotherapy in popular music and a narrative inquiry into the ethos of the 'wounded healer', both from a social constructionist epistemological position. Reflections foregrounding the use of myself in my capacities as a scientist and a practitioner are offered throughout and links to counselling psychology theory and practice are pursued in every piece contained in this portfolio.

This portfolio contains a selection of the work completed and submitted for the Practitioner Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology at the University of Surrey. It is structured in three sections called dossiers. The academic dossier contains three academic essays. The first is on the concepts of containment, engagement and psychological mindedness. The second considers a presenting problem called depersonalisation from a psychodynamic perspective. The third essay considers interpersonal processes and CBT. The second dossier relates to my clinical work and includes a description of the three clinical placements I undertook during the course. It also includes the final clinical paper which explains bow I have come to understand the relationship of theory, research and practice. The third dossier relates to the research conducted whilst on the course. My research area is the role of technology within the therapeutic relationship. There is a broad literature review on the role of technology within the therapeutic relationship. There then follows a discursive study on the sessions of text-based online counselling for 'problem gamblers'. Finally, there is an interpretative phenomenological analysis study on the experience of five counsellors who were purposively recruited from a charity that provides text-based counselling for 'problem gamblers'.

This portfolio encompasses a compilation of work that I submitted as part of my Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling psychology. It is divided into three dossiers which, combined, demonstrate my varied interests, learning and understanding, and my personal and professional development as a counselling psychologist. The academic dossier contains a selection of three essays. The first explores the dangers of unconscious countertransference associated with play therapy. The second discusses whether we, as counselling psychologists, can incorporate our understanding and use of the therapeutic relationship when working with clients within a Cognitive-behavioural (CBT) framework. The third discusses the cognitive approach to working with psychosis. My therapeutic dossier includes a description of my four placements through my training as well as my final clinical paper; this portrays my journey from the naive young girl I was when I started this course, through my personal and professional development, to the counselling psychologist I have become. Finally, my research dossier comprises my literature review and two empirical research pieces. My literature review explored the effect of parental styles and parental control on adolescents' relationship with food, alcohol and drugs; drawing from the findings of this review combined with my personal interests, research questions were established for my research. My first empirical piece is a baseline study looking at the influence of parental control, modelling and adolescent autonomy on adolescents' diet and eating behaviour while they live at home. My second empirical piece is a longitudinal study looking at the influence of parental control, modelling and adolescent autonomy on adolescents' diet and eating behaviour after they left home.

According to Liddle (1997) 'we know very little about gay and lesbian clients' utilisation of therapy' (p.ll). The objective of this research was to explore sexual-minority clients' subjective experience of finding a therapist and beginning therapy with them, capturing the complexity of this real life experience from the point of view of the sexual-minority client. Seven pal1ieipants who identified themselves as belonging to a sexual-minority were interviewed about their experience of finding a therapist and starting therapy. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, this study aimed to explore the subjective meaning that participants used to understand their experience. Five superordinate themes were identified within the data and these themes are discussed with reference to the existing literature. In particular, it is suggested that the participants' experience indicates the importance of working with an affirmative therapist, within an affirmative relationship. Implications and recommendations for therapy are considered and links with how counselling psychology's therapeutic and theoretical aims and practice can fit with the main findings are drawn.

This portfolio of work is divided into three sections: an Academic Dossier, a Therapeutic Practice Dossier and a Research Dossier. They contain papers written during the three years of my doctoral training in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology_ Although the papers have been organised in this way, there are considerable overlaps between the different areas. In fact, I have explicitly examined these overlaps between science and practice, between theory and experience - particularly in the General Introduction, in the Therapeutic Practice Dossier and in the final piece of research I present, whose method incorporates psychotherapeutic process into the process of data collection and analysis. The examination of these overlaps is also echoed in other papers here which bring to attention the constructed nature of the divisions between diagnostic categories in mental health. Mental health diagnosis is al so the predominant object of the deconstructive stance that I have assumed in most of the work here. Deconstructionism has been at the heart of the method of all three papers presented in the Research Dossier, especially the study in the title above, which analyses constructions of diagnosis on the internet. I have also attempted to deconstruct my own clinical development and to an extent aspects of psychotherapeutic models (the relationship in cognitive behavioural therapy and psychotic development in psychoanalytic theory) that I write about in the Academic Dossier. Having deconstructed, I have also attempted to be constructive: for example, I have propose a schematic for the relationship in cognitive behavioural therapy; ] suggest how a post-structuralist framework might be used to enrich cognitive therapy in an inpatient setting; and I model a psychosocial research method that uses skills derived from clinical and theoretical learning as a trainee counselling psychologist.

No description available.

The discipline of counselling psychology continues to grow and change in response to social, economic and political pressures. It has been argued that its quest for a coherent and distinct identity, which emphasises the possibility of the coexistence of multiple approaches, creates an inherently uncertain and dilemmatic training environment that may hinder the development of trainees’ professional identities. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the issue at hand, the aim was to explore how final year trainees and newly qualified counselling psychologists constructed and made sense of their emerging professional identities and what experiences, past and present, they drew upon in the context of their training to shape those identities. Applying narrative inquiry to analyse eight open-ended interviews, eight preliminary themes were originally identified in participants’ narratives, which with further refinements lead to stories of struggle and marginalisation, growth and discovery, and power and resilience. Participants’ stories of struggle and marginalisation emerged in reference to early family dynamics and stressful life experiences, which seemed to also foster a strong identification with the counselling psychology profession, while stories of growth and discovery focused on the importance of having supportive figures, who helped to instill a sense of security and create an atmosphere of openness. It was in this learning environment that participants felt it was possible to develop a more resilient, empowered professional self, which allowed them to shed an earlier sense of struggle and vulnerability. However, where more of an emphasis was placed on power and resilience, there seemed to be less room for participants to express other feelings that came into conflict with their preferred sense of professional self. While there seems to be a need for a ‘safer’ climate, in which trainees could voice and acknowledge anxieties, vulnerabilities and limitations, addressing concerns around power and vulnerability that may be contributing to the silencing of particular voices and identities may be equally important if trainees are to develop coherent and distinct counselling psychologist identities.

Literature has documented how cultural practices, (in particular izzat), impact the day-to-day lived experiences of South Asian women. It is evident that such beliefs and value-systems can affect the psychological well-being and experiences of distress of these individuals. This study intended to explore how six young second generation Pakistani Muslim women understand izzat, what role if any, it has in their lives and whether there is an interplay between upholding the cultural codes and the participants' help-seeking strategies for psychological distress. A qualitative research method was adopted whereby semi-structured interviews were conducted and transcribed. The data was collected and analysed through the use of an Interpretative Phenomenological Analytic framework. Analysis of the interview transcripts identified three main themes: - 1) Upholding the Rules of Izzat, 2) Speaking Out/Getting Help and 3) Negotiating Tensions. In conclusion, the study findings highlighted the various ways in which izzat was interpreted by the participants and the implications these cultural codes have for strategies in managing or the silencing of psychological distress. Interviews with the study participants also illustrate the dilemmas and tensions that the participants experience when considering codes of izzat (personal and familial) and how these are negotiated to enable young Pakistani women to self-manage or seek help when experiencing psychological distress. The analysis also highlights possible life experiences that might lead to self-harm and attempted suicide in young Pakistani Muslim women. It was noted that cultural practices of izzat appear to vary over time 8 as individuals are exposed to alternative cultural practices or coping strategies, yet can also be mediated by and individual’s country of birth or residence. The findings were found to support and advance existing research, which suggests that codes of izzat mediate the resources and help-seeking strategies Pakistani Muslim women utilise to maintain and manage their psychological well-being. Suggestions for further research and implications for practice are discussed.

We know very little about the wider training and life experiences of counselling psychologists. The little research that has been carried out on the experiences of training programmes has tended to focus on a particular aspect, for example, the wounded healer and how early experiences of caring for others can motivate people to become professional carers; and the experiences of mandatory personal therapy, rather than looking at the wider journey that a trainee counselling psychologist travels. The current research aimed to explore the broader experiences of trainee counselling psychologists. How do trainee counselling psychologists’ prior expectations inform their experiences of training? How do trainee counselling psychologists make use of personal therapy to support their development? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven final year trainee counselling psychologists from different United Kingdom Universities and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the transcripts. Three superordinate themes were identified. These were named, Uncertainty at this new training journey, which explored the participants’ early experiences of the training course; From ambivalence to acceptance: Individual growth during training, which explored how the participants’ overall training journey progressed and increased their self-awareness; and Developing a professional identity, which explored the participants’ development of their identity through becoming more confident, changing as a person and learning from others. The findings suggest that the participants brought with them expectations of their training which did not often match up with reality. The findings also illustrated that the majority of participants seemed to have been in some way ‘wounded’ in the past and this led to them wanting to help others to heal. Furthermore, the results suggest that the majority of participants were initially resistant to having mandatory personal therapy, but by the end of training they found it to be an essential part of their training. Findings are discussed and translated into training recommendations that will benefit trainees apriori and during their journeys in the form of workshops, counselling and support sessions and student support so that trainees are better informed about what to expect when embarking on the training course.