Background: This study set out to compare an integrative approach to therapy based on cognitive and psychodynamic principles with traditional cognitive behaviour therapy. Methods: 39 clients presenting to a university research clinic and meeting DSM V criteria for depression were randomly assigned to either cognitive psychodynamic or cognitive behavioural therapy with the PHQ9 scale used as the primary outcome measure. Findings: Both therapies resulted in significant reductions in PHQ9 scores from before to after therapy, and the magnitude of reduction was equivalent. Discussion: Cognitive psychodynamic therapy has equivalent efficacy to cognitive behaviour therapy and may be advantageous for clients where the roots of their depression are in early development.
Background: There has been a growing awareness of neurodiversity and individuals’ needs across various contexts, including therapy. However, in couples therapy involving neurodiverse couples (one partner autistic and one neurotypical), there is a limited understanding of how neurodiversity affects relationships. Existing studies often prioritise the experiences of neurotypical partners, adopting a ‘deficit’ focus that encourages the autistic partner to change their behavior while overlooking both partners’ lived experiences. Recent research indicates inadequate therapeutic support and a lack of understanding of neurodiverse couples’ neurological differences. To date, no studies have explored their subjective experiences and needs in couples therapy. This gap illustrates the need to examine their meaning-making from a counseling psychology perspective. Method: This study conducted six semi-structured remote interviews with neurodiverse couples, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings: Three main superordinate themes emerged from the data: ‘Lack of knowledge of autism and support: Evaluating what is needed from couples therapy,’ ‘Being in couples therapy as a neurodiverse couple in a neurotypical world,’ and ‘Perceived outcomes of couples therapy.’ The findings reveal a general lack of understanding of neurodiversity and its impact, and the challenges of neurodiverse couples of navigating a neurotypical-dominated therapeutic environment. Discussion: Clinical implications include enhancing support for neurodiverse couples by accommodating their unique needs, such as differences in communication and emotional processing.
Aim: This paper details the design, implementation, and early evaluation of a tailored mentoring program for applied psychologists at Surrey and Borders Partnership (SABP) NHS Foundation Trust. The program aims to enhance both professional and personal development, improve job satisfaction, and support workforce retention. Background: Mentoring is linked to improved wellbeing, career progression, and professional identity among psychologists; however, structured mentoring opportunities within NHS psychology services remain inconsistent. SABP faces additional challenges due to workforce shortages, geographical spread, and cost-of-living pressures, highlighting the need for a customised mentoring approach. Method: A needs assessment survey of applied psychologists (n = 137) informed the development of a unique ‘5-Stars Mentoring Model,’ integrating principles from coaching, supervision, and systems-thinking frameworks. At the time of writing, forty-one psychologists (mentors: n = 20; mentees: n = 21) participated in a 12-month pilot programme. Mentors completed a CPD-accredited training session, and mentoring pairs met bi-monthly, supported by reflective journals, self-assessment tools, 360-degree feedback, and facilitated peer support sessions. Qualitative feedback was collected throughout the program. Results: Early findings suggest high levels of engagement and perceived value. Mentors initially experienced role-related anxiety, which decreased with peer support, while mentees described the mentoring as a psychologically safe developmental space. Peer groups played a crucial role in learning and refining the program. Conclusion: This program demonstrates the feasibility and value of structured mentoring in supporting the development, wellbeing, and retention of psychologists within an NHS context.
This paper explores co-creating meaning-making in narrative supervision with supervisees as a dynamic and collaborative process that brings together diverse roles, functions, and perspectives. To navigate these complexities effectively, supervisors must cultivate a safe collaborative environment that encourages open dialogue, curiosity, and co-learning. This paper presents a first-person account of integrating narrative therapy into my supervisory practice, highlighting its transformative impact on my relationships with supervisees and the development of shared understanding. I explore the historical context, core principles, and critiques of narrative therapy, as well as its practical applications in clinical supervision. Through this reflective account, I aim to contribute to the ongoing discourse on narrative approaches in supervision, emphasising the importance of practices that prioritise relational context. This paper invites counselling psychologists to reflect on the potential of narrative approaches in their own supervisory work and consider how they can be leveraged to meet the unique needs of their practice, thereby enriching the supervisory experience and fostering deeper connections with supervisees.
Context: The aim of the current paper is to provide an overview of the literature surrounding relational interventions and their relevance to neuropsychological rehabilitation following brain injury. Relational interventions are commonly applied within couples therapy where one partner has survived a traumatic brain injury, but the framework holds relevance to wider neuropsychological practice, moving away from the traditional ‘one-person psychology’ to a more diverse matrix composed of relational, social, cultural and universal forces upon the mind. From a reflexive standpoint, relationality is at the core of the reflective practitioner model that underpins the professional framework of counselling psychology (CoP) and is therefore an essential aspect of the science-practitioner model of a CoP in clinical neuropsychology. With clinical neuropsychology becoming a pathway for post-doctoral training for counselling psychologists for the first time in the UK, and with many counselling psychologists already practicing in this field, this paper explores the importance of relational practice within neurorehabilitation in the backdrop of epistemological barriers. Conclusion: Advances in psychodynamic neuroscience, neuropsychology and neuropsychoanalysis, have opened a new interdisciplinary dialogue that foregrounds the vital role of relational processes in neurorehabilitation. By mapping interpersonal dynamics onto brain function, this growing body of knowledge underscores how relational practice can enhance neural integration, promote psychological resilience, and support long-term functional outcomes. Relationally driven approaches are not merely supplemental to neurorehabilitation but are central to it, providing a powerful, evidence-informed pathway for recovery across all stages of the life span.
This paper begins by introducing the mythical origins of the wounded healer ethos and its relevance to therapy practice today. As a counselling psychologist in training, I consider my relationship with the wounded healer paradigm, and my position of discomfort in embracing the language of wounds and healing as applied to human suffering. This unease prompts a journey of deconstruction, probing the idea of therapists as healers. I visit authors from counselling psychology, critical psychology and psychoanalysis, who contribute diverse narratives of the role and influence of therapists, ranging from professional helper to malign deathmaker. I end with a return to the wounded healer ethos, holding this position lightly, as one of multiple complex and challenging narratives of being a therapeutic helper.
As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through.’ (Tweeted by C.G. Jung Foundation, 16 May 2016) Content & Focus: In this editorial, we voice the unspoken and illuminate the subtle expressions of ‘race’ discrimination, in an effort to amend and repair our relationship with ‘race’ within a profession we are immensely proud of and that which forms a part of our identities. As individual practitioners, we desire a shift in our continued professional development and a true recognition of the visible but hidden phenomenon of ‘race’. We long for legitimacy and a lifelong ideal where, although issues may exist, we are able to experience, dissect, learn, and disseminate knowledge. We want counselling psychology to actively partake in the dialogue around race; and be a driving force to carry through advocacy for our clients and for ourselves.
Background Violent political instability in countries such as Syria has seen the worldwide number of forcibly displaced people rise to levels not seen since World War 2, with over 150,000 asylum seekers and refugees hosted in the UK alone (UNHCR, 2015). Despite this figure, many UK residents have only a limited understanding of the experience of seeking asylum. Content & Focus This article features a reflective account of the author’s experience of being in a relationship with an asylum seeker/refugee in the UK. It begins with the author’s reflections on the harsh asylum process and encourages those of us with a right to remain in the UK to consider how we would cope in such circumstances. Opportunities for personal and professional development that have arisen from the relationship are outlined, with particular emphasis on the experience of uncertainty and powerlessness. Finally, indignation at the inequalities faced by asylum seekers and refugees is presented as a catalyst for the development of a social justice agenda both within and beyond the therapy room. Conclusion Being in a romantic relationship with an asylum seeker/refugee offers a unique vantage point to learn about the asylum process in depth. Furthermore, even such overtly challenging experiences can be transformed into opportunities for personal and professional growth, including the development of a social justice agenda in our counselling psychology practice.
Content & Focus : This paper aims to explore a number of key challenges raised by existential theory to the dominant assumptions, aims and practices within contemporary counselling psychology. It argues that the existential focus on relatedness significantly alters counselling psychology’s understanding of, and ways of perceiving individuals as well as the concerns that are brought to the therapeutic encounter.
It is widely accepted that Counselling Psychology is underpinned by both Humanist and Post-Modern epistemologies, and that it holds the practitioner’s ‘use of self’ in the service of the therapeutic relationship to be paramount in the therapeutic encounter. Although Humanism and Post-Modernism can both provide theoretical pretexts for the use of self, these stances to knowledge can be experienced as in conflict with each other, and so generate ambiguity and conflict for trainees. The academic (University) contexts of training courses can feed into aspects of these epistemological conflicts in that they uphold individualist-objectivist stances to knowledge/evidence and styles of communication. In this paper psychological literature is drawn upon to explore how trainees are positioned by the discourses of ‘self’ and ‘development’ that are available to them, with particular reference to the discourse of ‘reflective-practice’. The concept of a plural and dialogical self is used to suggest augmenting the manner in which personal and professional development is conducted and assessed.
Because I have so little time in which to tackle such a basic and important issue I shall limit myself to sketching the fundamental contradictions and pitfalls that are to be found underneath the smooth presentations of this new discipline of counselling psychology. It seems to me all the more important to take this opportunity to ask some pertinent questions and challenge some of the preconceptions around the aims and objectives of counselling psychology as it will be tempting for most of us to launch headlong into the professionalization of the field in order to achieve credibility. In making these few remarks I shall therefore speak from the perspective of the philosopher as defined by Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations, where he declares that “the work of a philosopher consists in assembling reminders for a particular purpose” (Wittgenstein, 1953). My purpose will be clear in a minute.
Content and Focus: This article will discuss phenomenology and phenomenological research methods, and through an exploration of the case of Empirical Phenomenological Analysis (EPA) will explore the possibility of a phenomenological approach to research through reverie. With regard to the relationship between phenomenology and ‘phenomenological research’, Husserlian phenomenology implies ‘research’, therefore, making the term ‘phenomenological research’ redundant and a misnomer. However, there exists an abundance of ‘phenomenological research methods’, which despite claiming to focus on the lived experienced of the participant, stand contrary to phenomenology in that they are broadly empirical, systematised and psychologise the notion of phenomenology. The case of EPA, which is a phenomenological research method, empirical in nature and mediated in line with ‘scientific practices’ will be discussed in depth. In turn, through the critical analysis of EPA, we see the need for an alternative approach to research, which is apposite with phenomenology’s philosophical aims. As a result, reverie, which includes abstract musings, ruminations and wonderings, will be discussed as an approach to research through phenomenology. It is argued that reverie, contrary to traditional phiinomenolhgijiall research methods’, facilitates access to the participants’ concerns through an attendance to subjective and intersubjective experience in the research process, enabling the relational to emerge in and through research.
‘It is very easy for us to get lost in the mundane world and forget about our connection to spirit. Yet without that connection we are basically the walking dead.’ Sobonfu Somé 2
Content and FocusA brief post-structuralist analysis of recent changes to the criteria for anorexia nervosa in the DSM-5 is presented. These changes are examined in the context of the political and social forces described in existing literature. The main idea that emerges from the analysis is that the creation of diagnostic criteria is a value-driven practice which, in the case of anorexia nervosa, encourages a somatic and controlling clinical approach. A clinical example is then used to illustrate how social and therapeutic discourses might affect therapists and clients in an inpatient setting. A tentative formulation of how post-structuralist theory can be applied in a way which considers how therapist and client are positioned by discourses is also advanced.ConclusionIn the context of the changing diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, it is concluded that poststructuralist theory can be applied usefully for therapists and clients in inpatient settings. This necessitates a degree of reflexive practice which may suit counselling psychologists well. Such an application may also fit in with and improve understanding of existing therapeutic approaches rather than simply deconstructing them.
Content and Focus Counselling psychologists offer their services to clients in organisational, political and economic contexts that are characterised by increasing levels of complexity, uncertainty and turbulence. Investigating the effectiveness of what we do remains critical to the future of the psychology professions, but our traditional approaches to scientific enquiry may not be adequate for the types of dilemma generated by complexity. Conclusions This paper describes a framework, adapted from contemporary complexity theory, that can support us in thinking systematically and creatively about the range of investigative skills we might need if professional practice is to prove fit for purpose in the decades to come. It is proposed that complexity theory can assist us in responding creatively to the dilemmas of living and working in unprecedented times.
This article is based on the text of a talk given at a conference on the future of counselling and psychotherapy organised by the Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy in December 2012. The full text appears in Therapy Today, March 2013.
