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Gallagher, Rebecca (2014) The relationship between client work and personal and professional development in Counselling Psychology training. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
Personal and professional development activities are a central component of Counselling Psychology training due to regulatory requirements and the high value Counselling Psychology places on the therapist’s "self". Most research on the facilitation of personal and professional development focuses on specific training activities such as personal therapy and personal development groups. However, it is widely acknowledged that personal and professional development are also facilitated by aspects of training and life that are not designed for their facilitation. This research explores the relationship between trainee Counselling Psychologists’ personal and professional development and their client work. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse semi-structured interviews with six final year trainee Counselling Psychologists. Two main findings were identified: firstly, participants were unable to discuss their personal and professional development in relation to client work specifically; personal and professional development were facilitated by the relevance of specific experiences to individuals’ needs and preferences rather than activities having a direct facilitative effect themselves.
Secondly, participants did not engage in active personal development work, and this was not explicitly discussed or structured in training. These findings imply that trainees may not develop optimally: as personal and professional development are highly individualised and complex processes, research and training that focuses on specific training activities may fail to interrogate the complexity of why and how personal and professional development are facilitated. Regulatory and ethical implications are discussed alongside existing literature to suggest the beginnings of a personal development curriculum for Counselling Psychology training.
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