Practitioner Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy: The Power of Examples

Developing knowledge in the field of counselling and psychotherapy has traditionally been seen to require a specific type of research: one typically undertaken by academics and published in journals, with the express purpose of raising the prestige of the field as a whole. But how are practitioners to apply findings based on generalisations to their unique therapeutic relationships with unique individuals?In this thought-provoking text, Liz Bondi and Judith Fewell invite practitioners to move away from an approach to research that depends upon distance and objectification, and towards a method centred on practical wisdom developed through intense exploration of the lived experience of therapeutic relationships. Following a close examination of the flaws of dominant approaches to research in the field, the book provides a richly detailed exploration of a diverse range of subjective experiences, from both practitioners and clients. These include a voluntary counsellor's account of working with a bereaved inmate in a Scottish prison, a case study about how music and poetry enabled a man diagnosed with schizophrenia living in a psychiatric facility to communicate and develop a positive therapeutic relationship, and an exploration of the gender dynamics experienced by a female trainee counsellor working with a depressed male client.Written by a collection of authors with a wealth of experience in practice and academia, this insightful and evocative text will inspire anyone undertaking research in this field - be they students, educators or practitioners.