While culture is a widely accepted issue in therapy, current approaches are criticised as unfit for purpose in a postmodern, postcolonial world characterised by large scale migration, cheap air travel and instantaneous electronic communication. This study attempts to move beyond crude ethno-cultural categories to view culture as a universal human phenomenon. It is a conception that admits characteristics of volatility, plasticity, contextuality and intersectionality; virtually unlimited hierarchical distinctions and dimensions that frequently come to stand in for each other. In addition, it attempts to view culture in positive terms, rather than as an unwanted obstacle to approaches to therapy that are historically rooted in dominant cultural groups. Four participants were selected using purposive sampling, and data was collected using semi-structured interviews, which were recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were then analysed narratively and using thematic analysis, and reported against a common subset of superordinate metacultural themes. While the study is a small scale exercise with admitted limitations, it provides support for a more universal view of culture; and the idea that it is a powerful personal resource that can be used both consciously and unconsciously. Personal factors caused participants to emphasise certain aspects of their cultural background and de-emphasise or avoid others. Participants attempted to seek out or access additional resources that helped to represent aspects of their personal story. The study provides support for three theoretical ideas: culture as a resource, cultural identity and personal culture; and it suggests ways in which culture can be used in therapy as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. Further work includes additional case studies employing a more comprehensive methodology, the use of discourse analysis to provide a degree of triangulation and investigate the discursive processes at work, and extension of the approach to areas beyond therapy.

The purpose of this research was to explore counsellors' experiences of hope in the counselling relationship in a number of counselling contexts, early in the twenty-first century in the United Kingdom. This research takes place against the background of considerable changes in mental health policy affecting counselling in both England and Wales. The wider political, social-cultural and economic context was marked by recession and uncertainty. A lack of research into counsellors' experiences of hope in the UK context was identified. A phenomenological perspective was taken as appropriate for exploring human experience with a social constructionist approach to the creation of knowledge complementing realist ontology with a pragmatic under pinning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with seven participants chosen using purposive and convenience sampling in both England and Wales from within professional networks and a variety of counselling settings. The transcribed data was analysed using Thematic Analysis and identified themes evidenced with quotations from the data. The main findings were in the context of hope identified as a common human experience. Participants' found difficulty in accessing their experiences of hope and it was found to be an intermittent and liminal experience varying in intensity and part of a meaning making process. Characteristics of this liminality were found to be placing participants at the limit of what they knew, living with uncertainty and waiting for new knowledge to emerge. This created vulnerability for some participants. Hope was also found to be an embodied relational experience within counsellors which they also saw in their clients. Implications of the findings suggested that counsellors could more actively cultivate awareness of their own hope as a resource for clients within an understanding of counselling as a social and liminal process. It is recommended that professional training and Continuing Professional Development workshops provide opportunities for exploring hope in the context of liminality. Future research opportunities include encouraging counsellors to use case study method to explore their own experiences of hope in counselling relationships and that of clients. These findings are presented as specific to this context and not as general truths.

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