Children's well-being is an extremely relevant topic at the moment both culturally and politically. Counselling psychologists complete training that includes a diversity of clinical and research approaches though these focus mainly on adults and neglect children. This study aimed to explore the construction of counselling psychologists' experiences of, and perceived contribution to, working with children. Charmaz's (2006) social constructivist version of the original grounded theory method was employed. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants from the British Psychological Society's website. Participants also self-selected for the study. Eleven individuals who were chartered counselling psychologists and had experience of working with children therapeutically were interviewed. Intensive interviewing was employed and the interviews were audio-taped with a typed transcript of each produced. Data analysis revealed a central concept which the researcher termed 'Being a Professional Chameleon', which gained expression through the subcategories of 'Adapting to Working with Children', 'Professional Selves' and 'Training and Competency of Working with Children'. The findings are discussed in relation to related literature, counselling psychology training and career paths. Implications for the counselling psychology profession are discussed, including suggestions for future research and clinical practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:570413 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Riha, Anna |
| Contributors | Richards, Angela ; House, Richard |
| Publisher | University of Roehampton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/studentthesis/being-a-professional-chameleon(98045c2a-da75-4225-96b4-5e09951983d9).html |
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