Practitioner Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy

Professor Liz Bondi divides her time between the School of GeoSciences and the School of Health in Social Science, where she is co-Director, at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests span counselling studies, feminism and emotional geographies. She is a counsellor accredited by COSCA (Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland). Judith Fewell is a Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh. A registered psychotherapist with the British Psychoanalytic Council, she works part-time for the adult psychotherapy service of the Scottish Institute. She is also accredited by COSCA as a counsellor and diploma level trainer.

• PART I: RECLAIMING THE WISDOM OF PRACTICE IN COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY RESEARCH1. Why Does Research So Often Alienate Practitioners and What Can Be Done About It?; Liz Bondi and Judith Fewell2. The Power of Examples; Liz Bondi and Judith Fewell3. Rethinking Supervision and Ethics in Experience-Near Research; Siobhan Canavan and Seamus PriorPART II: COMING INTO THERAPEUTIC PRACTICE4. A Trainee Counsellor's Account of Learning to Trust in the Process; Linda Gardner5. Losing Touch: An Exploration of the Place of Touch in Therapeutic Relationships; Anna St Clair6. Why I Became a Counsellor: Reflections on the Counter-transference; Mags TurnerPART III: CLIENT VOICES7. Working with Early Trauma in Therapy: Emerging from the Shadow of Polio; Connie Johnson8. Regarding 'The Tea-house of the August Moon': Therapeutic Work with a Man with Schizophrenia within a Hospital Context; April Parkins9. A Secret Sorrow: Making a Difference to Bereavement in Prison; Janette Masterton10. 'Reading the Wound': Using Stories to Open up the Nature of Trauma; Linda TalbertPART IV: EMBODYING THEORY11. An Investigation of Narratives of Anxiety; Chris Scott12. Hauntings: On Discovering the Lived Experience of Counter-transference; Patrick Fegan13. Working with Mark: Gender in the Consulting Room; Lynne Rollo14. Tolerating the 'Chaos Monsters': Making Sense with Bion; Diana Sim.

The authors offer a thoughtful and coherent discussion about the necessity of research outside the strictures of the medical model making an argument for more personal and experiential research being needed … I was impressed with the strength of the research that the authors used to consolidate their arguments.