This thesis explores the discourses underpinning therapists’ and non-therapists’ constructions of sexual experimentation and masturbation in heterosexual relationships. A constructionist thematic analysis of 200 story completions written by 58 therapists and 53 non-therapists showed that discursive imperatives to do ‘normal’ gender coalesce in participants’ accounts of heterosex to perpetuate prescriptive notions of sexual practice, produce unequal gendered relationships and generate different obligations and entitlements for women and men. Whilst both therapists and non-therapists drew on the same problematic heteronormative discourses to construct masturbation and sexual experimentation, the ‘difficulties' that these caused in relationships were generally framed by therapist’s as opportunities for personal growth and for increasing emotional depth within relationships. It is suggested that therapists’ understanding of relationships and intimacy may be informed by their therapeutic training and their overreliance on narrow and restrictive discourses of heterosex may to point towards a gap in critical training in sexual issues. The findings are situated within a wider discussion of counselling psychology’s role in addressing heteronormativity in psychological practice. It is argued that counselling psychology’s origins as an alternative to mainstream approaches and its stated aim of pursuing a wider social justice agenda positions it as a potential bridge between critical approaches and applied psychology. This research concludes that fostering a critical stance in counselling psychologists will not only allow the social justice agenda of the discipline to be met more consistently but could also support a more coherent and consistent professional identity. Key words: Counselling Psychology, coital imperative, heteronormativity, masturbation, sex therapy, sexual experimentation, thematic analysis, therapeutic training.

Professional counselling in India is an emerging field where current practice is largely influenced by Western models of counselling. These methods are integrated with methods of Indian holistic healing. There is limited research and reviewed literature in this field in India. Most mental health research is based on psychiatry and social work. The aim of this study is to explore practitioner experiences in the social reality of their practice using a culturally sensitive, strengths perspective. These strengths stem from the individual’s core and develop within the influence of culture. This study will examine current personal and professional experiences of trained practising psychological counsellors, create awareness about strengths and develop a goal for the emancipation of professional counsellors in the given cultural context. This qualitative research has a Participatory Action Research (PAR) design with seven participants in a PAR group setting. The data collected over 10 meetings across 8 months was recorded and transcribed by me. The data was analysed using a non-interpretive, recursive, reflexive analysis. The major findings are the realities of practice and effects of socio-cultural influences on the professional counsellor, for instance: age, gender, spirituality, language, cultural expectations and strengths. The transformative outcome was professional awareness of being instruments of change and to enable change in social reality. It also led to the development of a support group for practising counsellors. The research process was emancipatory as it directed participants to acknowledge their value as Indian counsellors, voice their need for professional recognition and begin a process of liberation by implementing their own growth and awareness socially and in practice. The methodological approach, findings and outcome of the study are intended to be disseminated through publications in counselling, educational peer reviewed journals and presentation of papers at conferences. This aims to impact counselling training, research and practice. It will also enhance the limited body of existing knowledge in psychological counselling in India.

In the UK, engagement in personal therapy (PT) is an integral requirement of professional training in counselling psychology. However, despite the importance of PT during training, there is no current requirement for practicing counselling psychologists to continue this post-qualification. The aims of this study were: to explore the reasons that counselling psychologists engage (or not) in PT post-qualification; to understand counselling psychologists’ views of PT as contributing to their professional and personal development; and to explore counselling psychologists’ views of PT as a potential CPD activity. Using Charmaz’s (2006) constructivist grounded theory approach to analyse the data, five major categories were constructed through the analysis: personal growth versus personal crisis; practice what you preach; the ideal therapist; compliance and confusion of compulsory PT as trainees; and approval, ambivalence and constraints of PT as post-qualification CPD. The core constructed theoretical category - diverging attitudes towards the role of post-qualification personal therapy - was considered to represent qualified counselling psychologists’ uncertainty about the role of PT therapy in the context of their own ongoing personal and professional development. Most participants described seeking therapy post-qualification for self-reflection and for emotional support in a time of crisis. Many were in favour of PT as a voluntary CPD activity to be engaged in sporadically for short periods over one’s professional career. However, participants were less in favour of PT as a compulsory CPD activity. The findings are discussed with regards to the relevant literature and the implications they have for the discipline of counselling psychology, for training and for the continuing professional development of counselling psychologists. The findings draw attention to the counselling psychologists’ voluntary engagement with PT post-qualification, and has helped to elucidate how PT is understood, viewed and engaged in, or not, by qualified counselling psychologists as an activity for CPD.

To date, there is a dearth of studies addressing therapeutic uses of bilingualism as applied to counselling psychology in postcolonial contexts. This study explored some of the ways in which Maltese therapeutic practitioners1 understood and worked with bilingualism. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with accredited therapeutic practitioners. Taking a poststructural epistemological approach, a Foucauldian informed discourse analysis was applied to the data produced. In the analysis, three key discourses were identified: professional, cultural, and deviant that produced bilingualism as a power-laden discursive site of therapeutic ideas and practices. Further examination of how these discourses resourced discursive constructions of Maltese-English bilingualism highlighted how these firstly positioned uses of English and Maltese as serving different therapeutic functions, with participants understanding counselling ideas in English while cultural experiences were best expressed in Maltese. Secondly, some of the postcolonial resonances that privilege English over Maltese were illustrated as still evident in these accounts through the construction of English as sophisticated and Maltese as crude. Finally, code-switching was variously objectified as both facilitative and frustrating in enabling therapeutic communication and maintaining the therapeutic relationship. This analysis therefore contributes to an alternative understanding of bilingualism in Maltese therapeutic practice by highlighting the social, cultural and historical processes that have shaped these discursive constructions. This may inform Maltese practitioners in developing their critical reflexivity regarding the power implications of using Maltese and English, and may also be useful to the wider therapeutic community, including counselling psychologists, working in other bilingual contexts.

The Research Dossier includes an initial review of the literature on fathers who are non-resident, due to separation or divorce, written from a social-constructionist perspective and two subsequent pieces of research. The first piece of research is a qualitative exploration of non-resident fathers’ experiences of separation from their children, within the context of involvement in the UK family legal system. The second, a quantitative piece of research, investigates the impact of fathers’ residency status i.e. resident, married/cohabiting fathers living with their children, and non-resident, on fathers’ sense of belongingness, of alienation and of positive well-being.

The research sets out to explore the influence of the coach’s unconscious mind on the coaching process and to the answer the question, How does the coach’s unconscious mind influence the coaching process? This research is based on the psychodynamic concept that the unconscious mind is omnipresent and a strong influence on thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and sought to ascertain the extent to which the coach’s unconscious mind is at work in the coaching process. Brunning (2006) suggests that the term psychodynamic links psycho (from the psyche Greek meaning soul or mind) and dynamic (from the Greek dynamis, meaning strength or power). Thus, psychodynamic work is based on ways of understanding how the mental forces operating intrapersonally and interpersonally in and between individuals and groups affect their thinking and behaviour. It involves eight participants, all of whom are professionally trained and accredited coaches, working in the public sector in Scotland as either internal or external coaches. The research invited participants to explore their lived experience in relation to the intrapersonal process; the interpersonal process, relationships with parties to the coaching contract and the coaching process. The data collection followed three distinct yet inter-related stages, engaging participants in semi-structured interviews using metaphor, symbolic representation and creation of metaphoric landscapes, culminating in indirect observation of the coach at work. The narrative is a journey of discovery for both the researcher and the participants, with data emerging that identifies the coach’s relationship not only with the external parties but also with the different parts of self. In the three stages of this journey, the participants travel from mental activity, reflecting on lived experience, perceptions and events, to the exploration of mental process and constructs which are inferred, discovered and translated into conscious awareness throughout the research interviews. The professional significance of this research is the consideration of where the need for psychological awareness sits within the context of professional coach education and accreditation, which moves the coach beyond technique to psychological understanding, self-awareness and self-regulation.

Background. Counselling psychologists require competency in various areas. Critical self-reflection is arguably one of the most important, and distinguishes the profession from other applied psychology. Groupwork facilitates change and understanding of the self in relation to others, offering counselling psychologist trainees a formal space for reflection, support and learning. Previous work has explored personal development and peer supervision groups for counselling psychologists and counsellours in training,but not the use of a case discussion group as part of a professional doctoral programme. Within a case discussion group, members are allocated the task of sharing their counselling practice by presenting cases in the presence of peers, with the ultimate aim of developing more effective ways of working with the issues presented. Method. A mixed methods design was used to investigate the experience of nine training counselling psychologists who had already completed a 12-week case discussion group. Before commencing, trainees completed a goal assessment form,indicating their goals and expectations. Trainees rated their goal on a Likert-type scale at regular intervals throughout the groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine trainees to explore how they believed participation in the group helped them reach their goals. Findings. Trainees indicated three goal types: to increase knowledge about different psychotherapeutic approaches, self-development and developing their ability to give and receive feedback within the groups. Trainees reported that participation helped them achieve their self-narrated goals. Change was most significant during the first half of group participation (between weeks three and seven). Four themes emerged from qualitative interview analysis: the experience of attending a case discussion group; establishing safety and trust within the group, engaging with boundaries and the structure of the group, and learning from being in a group and renegotiating goals. Conclusion. Identifying personal goals prior to attending a case discussion group is reported as a useful activity by counselling psychologists enrolled within a taught professional doctorate programme. Importantly, it does not interfere with how trainees experience the groups in question. However, there is a disparity between trainees' expectations and what they report gaining from attending a case discussion group. Overall trainees report benefits from attending a case discussion group although within the current context, it was found that hindering events within a group were not disclosed within qualitative interviews. This is considered in view of themethodological design whereby the researcher held dual relationships with participants. Recommendations for both counselling psychologists in training and for course trainers are presented.

Supervision training and practice has evolved from a uni-professional based approach, where counsellors provided supervision for counsellors, and coaches provided supervision for coaches, to what I term, cross-professional supervision (a term I coined in 2010). While the practice of supervision is commonplace in most clinical and counselling training contexts, a culture that values supervision has not yet developed in many professions, such as adult education, spiritual direction, the police force, health care and hypnotherapy. Drawing on my own training in counselling supervision, and the learning gained through the design and delivery of professional products, including a supervision text The Soul of Supervision, the following research project traces the leadership role I have taken as a senior practitioner and trainer in setting up and directing the first Master’s programme in supervision in Ireland. A consequence of this development has been what I term an emerging cross-professional supervision practice (CPS) in which trained supervisors from differing professional and disciplinary backgrounds supervise practitioners from various professions, and the consequential need for a new professional supervision organisation which I founded in 2005. The practice of CPS has grown and to date there appears to be little research concerning the possible strengths and challenges of this practice for supervisors, supervisees or clients. Using a qualitative phenomenological inquiry, this study explores the experiences of eight purposively chosen co-researchers, supervisors practicing CPS, and in that sense knowledgeable about the field. Using qualitative interviewing techniques, analysing the data thematically, reflecting the reflexive methodology of supervision, the interviews focused on the co-researchers’ experience of CPS training and practice. Themes were grouped together in related clusters and fell naturally into two related major themes 1) evolving identities and 2) emergent professional knowledge. One of the most striking and consistent themes from the interviews was the impact of transformational learning theory and ways of knowing, foundational to the training and practice, thus core elements for the final product – a draft for a manual on CPS. The study suggests that the uni-professional approach across professions and accreditation requirements within counselling supervision, if left unchallenged, may limit the practice of CPS and the development of the profession of supervision. The study also suggests a need for ongoing training in CPS and further research into this emerging practice.

This thesis examines the role that coachees play in coaching conversations and relationships. It develops theoretical insights into the concept of a skilled coachee, providing an alternative discourse to that which is dominant in the coaching literature. Despite the emphasis on coachee benefits as an output of coaching, the prevailing discourse of coaching privileges the skills of the coach in coaching relationships and downplays the agency of coachees and the role this plays in coaching processes. Using a hybrid research methodology, which draws on central tenets of action research and grounded theory, seven coaching relationships are examined using a mixture of observation, paired and individual interviews. The subsequent analysis suggests a heuristic of coachee skills and behaviours deployed in coaching conversations. These sets of skills and behaviours include: enabling mechanisms which enhance and facilitate the coaching conversation and defensive mechanisms which coachees - often unconsciously - can adopt to protect themselves from embarrassment or threat. These coachee skills work in complement with coach skills, as articulated in the coaching literature. This study thus contributes an alternative discourse of coaching within which coachees are more agentic in the process, than has previously been acknowledged. This alternative discourse has three elements to it: (1) coaching is a skilled collaborative partnership where both parties utilise process skills; (2) all behaviours, whether enabling or defensive, are functional for the participants in maintaining a developmental relationship; (3) responsibility for the coaching process can be extended to encompass both coaches and coachees. These conclusions hold implications for a range of stakeholders, including coaches, coachees, scheme designers, academics, professional bodies, supervisors and therapists.

Multiculturalism is rapidly rising with increased numbers of people of mixed parentage. This is both theoretically and clinically relevant for Counselling Psychology given this rise increases the chances of clinical practitioners working with people from a variety of backgrounds. Mixed parentage literature is still in its infancy with few studies available (Eleftheriadou, 2010). This research therefore attempts to fill the gaps and bring to the debate the personal voice through a qualitative approach asking, ‘What is it like to have parents from different cultural backgrounds’? Using semi-structured interviews with five participants of mixed parentage and Hermeneutic-Phenomenology (van Manen, 1990; 2014) as method, two strong characteristics emerged that were common to all participants. The first was a sense of feeling caught between two worlds, while some participants reported racialized experiences, all the participants experienced the minority parents’ heritage as a significant aspect of the phenomenon. The second characteristic that emerged was resilience to adversity that the participants described in different ways and appeared to create a flexible approach to life. New knowledge came in the form of discrimination experienced from both heritages, a sense of not feeling at home in either creating additional risks to mental health, a finding yet to be fully addressed within a counselling psychology context. A second discovery was the minority parent’s heritage language that impacts on the mixed person’s sense of belonging. The implications for Counselling Psychology and future research are identified and discussed.