Practitioner Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy: The Power of Examples [Paperback]

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.

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.

PART I: RECLAIMING THE WISDOM OF PRACTICE IN COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY RESEARCH.- 1. Why Does Research So Often Alienate Practitioners and What Can Be Done About It?; Liz Bondi and Judith Fewell.- 2. The Power of Examples; Liz Bondi and Judith Fewell.- 3. Rethinking Supervision and Ethics in Experience-Near Research; Siobhan Canavan and Seamus Prior.- PART II: COMING INTO THERAPEUTIC PRACTICE.- 4. A Trainee Counsellor's Account of Learning to Trust in the Process; Linda Gardner.- 5. Losing Touch: An Exploration of the Place of Touch in Therapeutic Relationships; Anna St Clair.- 6. Why I Became a Counsellor: Reflections on the Counter-transference; Mags Turner.- PART III: CLIENT VOICES.- 7. Working with Early Trauma in Therapy: Emerging from the Shadow of Polio; Connie Johnson.- 8. Regarding 'The Tea-house of the August Moon': Therapeutic Work with a Man with Schizophrenia within a Hospital Context; April Parkins.- 9. A Secret Sorrow: Making a Difference to Bereavement in Prison; Janette Masterton.- 10. 'Reading the Wound': Using Stories to Open up the Nature of Trauma; Linda Talbert.- PART IV: EMBODYING THEORY.- 11. An Investigation of Narratives ofls4