This portfolio is submitted for the award of the Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology at City University. It consists of three parts: a research project, a client study and a publishable paper. The focus of all three parts is the relationships between and around therapist and client when clients seek to alleviate psychological distress in the face of adversity. The research uses a phenomenological perspective to examine the experience of psychologists who provide psychological interventions for adult cancer patients. The over-riding theme which emerged was the systemic context that participants experience in the course of their clinical work . The client study presents a piece of clinical work with a very frightened client who had experienced multiple traumatic experiences as the result of organised violence. It describes the way in which Narrative Exposure Therapy might be adapted to the pace of a particularly hesitant and frightened client. The foundation of this work was the relationship between client and therapist and the impact of family members on that therapy. The publishable paper is a condensation of the research prepared for submission to Psycho-Oncology. Research and clinical work are linked by the common theme of working with clients who face genuine adversity: the diagnosis and treatment of cancer or multiple traumatic experiences. The phenomenological stance of the research might initially seem very different to the evidence based stance of the client study. The preface to this portfolio argues that they are complementary and coexisting types of knowledge and therefore form a coherent whole.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:594181 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Oakes, Margaret |
| Publisher | City University London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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