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Applied psychology has a complex relationship with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) matters. As part of the religious, legal, and scientific triumvirate, we played a central part in developing discriminatory, biased, and stereotypic perspectives castigating LGBT individuals as immoral, deviant, disordered, and even dangerous. Such perspectives not only begot and reinforced legal and social oppression, but also fuelled the creation of LGBT psychological theories and malevolent treatments – since discredited. In a historic and perhaps even redemptive reversal, professional psychological bodies now reject the notion that being LGBT is representative of a mental disorder, immorality, or social deviancy and affirm that LGBT people have a sexual orientation or gender identity that is normal, healthy, and legitimate. In fact, applied psychologists have become ardent advocates for LGBT human rights. In our post-triumvirate role, we might reason that our LGBT work is done or nearing completion with the proffering of LGBT-affirmative professional ethics, public policies, standards, and treatment guidelines. Yet LGBT individuals on both sides of the Atlantic continue to be negatively affected by alarming and disproportionate rates of serious mental health and psychosocial problems. These disparities are compounded by practitioner and trainee concerns regarding their competence with LGBT clients. Moreover, complex issues arise when applied psychologists’ personal beliefs run contrary to our professional LGBT standards of care. Based on a keynote address (Bidell, 2015) and research paper presentation (Bidell, Milton, Chang, Watterson, & Deschler, 2015) - both given at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society Division of Counselling Psychology - this paper juxtaposes our troubled past with current LGBT psychosocial issues. It weaves past with present as well as personal with professional to underscore the continued need to advance LGBT-affirmative psychological services.

BackgroundFocus groups are a widely utilised research method in an array of disciplines including the social sciences and, more specifically, in counselling and psychotherapy. They can be effective in assessing attitudes, opinions and experiences relative to a specific context and are relatively time and cost efficient. However, there are also potential limitations with this method, such as a reduced opportunity to participate for individuals and an increased likelihood of conformity in the group setting.AimsThis paper explores methodological issues in conducting and interpreting focus groups, illustrated with data from our own study on couple counsellors’ experiences of working with same-sex couples.MethodData was collected via three focus groups with 11 Relate counsellors and analysed using thematic analysis. The research process was used to reflect upon the experience of conducting and interpreting focus group data.Results/DiscussionThe advantages and disadvantages of using focus groups are exemplified in various ways, including evaluating benefits and shortcomings in a different light by considering them as situation specific methodological issues of group interaction and group dynamics. Issues in data analysis are demonstrated by stressing the importance of appraising the content, interaction, and the socio-cultural and biographical contexts of the focus group, participants, and the moderator.ImplicationsThe paper concludes with implications for future research employing focus group methodology.

Content & FocusThis study has investigated how White trainee counselling psychologists construct their experience of training in the area of racial difference, and how they discursively explore and negotiate their own potential for racial prejudice within the therapeutic encounter. This study attempts to offer some insight into the available discourses and their role in the creation of subject positions that the trainees come to occupy.MethodUsing the framework of Critical Discursive Psychology (CDP), data from eight interviews and two focus groups have been discursively analysed and are presented as one of an ever-evolving number of possible analyses. The study consisted of four female and four male participants, ranging in age from 28–57 years, who were between their second and fourth year of training.FindingsThe present analysis of the data has found that as the participants grapple with their professional identities as counselling psychologists in training, they inhabit one of three seemingly omnipresent discursive fields; ‘colour-blindness’, ‘interculturalism’ and ‘pluralism’. These fields offer the trainees alternative constructions of practice that are drawn on depending on which professional representation appears to be at stake. In particular, the participants struggle to balance the desire for value free openness associated with a pluralistic approach, alongside a need for professional competency. This professional competency is characterised by a dependence upon generalised understandings of racialised groups as supported by an intercultural perspective.ConclusionIt is argued that the multifaceted epistemological roots of counselling psychology leave much open to interpretation. Discursive fields are occupied interchangeably and supported by ideologies that are seemingly ill-defined. The present study would argue that the result is a basis for practice that runs the risk of alternating between privileging and excluding difference, whilst espousing an apparent integrity presented within the theory of pluralism.

Content & FocusThe UK Somali community has been identified as a cultural group who rarely access psychological services, despite high rates of mental health diagnoses such as depression. In particular, Somali men are said to be at increased risk of suicide and frequently present in tertiary care. The purpose of the current study was to explore how Somali male refugees in the UK understand and perceive the Western concept of depression, alongside their views on coping and professional help in the UK.MethodA constructivist grounded theory approach involved the use of twelve Somali male refugees in the community. They were interviewed with the aid of a vignette across three focus groups, with eight who participated in subsequent semi-structured interviews.Findings‘Depression’ appeared to be a result of the difficulties associated with migration, portrayed as an overall ‘sense of disconnection’. The ‘health’ of the community appeared to link to the ‘health’ of the individual, highlighting the collectivist appraisals of self-worth. Help-seeking from Western professionals was portrayed as rare. Health professionals were conceptualised as lacking awareness of the needs of the Somali community in relation to their difficulties.ConclusionThese findings highlight the importance of taking into account social and contextual factors making decisions about depression as a diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

BackgroundViolent 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 & FocusThis 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.ConclusionBeing 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.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to understand the older adults’ subjective experiences of the therapy process.MethodsNine older adults aged 68 to 82 years old volunteered to talk about their experiences of receiving Psychological Therapy within a secondary care service. A Constructivist Grounded theory method and unstructured interviews were used to capture their retrospective accounts.ResultsThe Grounded Theory analysis revealed categories and themes which produced a theory that explained the process of therapy for these older adults. The data yielded a core category of ‘moving towards equanimity’, which included four main categories (also 19 sub-categories): (1) sensing continuity and discontinuity within an ageing ‘self’, (2) embodying an awareness of an ageing changing ecology, (3) cultivating a therapeutic relationship, and connecting with wholeness and a new perspective (see figure 1.0).ConclusionsThe core category can be understood as contributing to the participants changing and regaining emotional stability, mental calm and balance. The therapy process moved them towards equanimity by bringing the story of the ‘self’ to a unified whole (Polkinghorne, 1991). A good working alliance allowed the older adult to re-integrate the ‘self’, so that their balance and sense of ‘continuity’ could be renewed (Williams, 1984, p.178). This research provides a rich narrative which strengthens theory and ‘clinical practice links’ (Llewellyn & Hardy, 2001, p.14) and could be used as a procedural approach to look more closely at the therapy journey (Smith & Grawe, 2003). Examining process in therapy and the meaning for older adults positions the client in ‘their social and cultural settings’ (Katz & Mishler, 2003, p.35). It also ‘gives voice’ (Willig, 2001, p.12) to individuals who can often encounter difficulties with being heard.

Content and FocusThis paper has emerged from my experience and developing practice of working integratively with survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It aims to raise key considerations to make in practicing from a CBT-informed rather than a CBT-led perspective with survivors.ConclusionsIt argues for the centrality of the therapeutic relationship as a foundation within which all therapeutic work occurs with survivors. It advocates practitioners to strive for a balance between process-led and client-led integrative choices in therapy and emphasises the importance of safe trauma practice through developing the survivors’ functional coping strategies before calling forth traumatic memories. Contributions and limitations of a CBT approach with survivors are discussed, and building integrative practices with different traditions as a goal for counselling psychologists is encouraged.

Content and Focus:Whilst counselling psychologists providing services to individuals referred through employer funded employee assistance schemes and similar can routinely use established assessments of mood, or behaviours indicative of psychological distress, it may also be useful and relevant to evaluate effects on the individual’s experience of and at work. It may be the case that a broader range of outcomes should appropriately be evaluated to allow assessment at both an individual case level and at a broader service evaluation level in the work setting. This paper proposes that pre- and post-assessment of key aspects of an individual’s Quality of Working Life (QoWL) can make a valuable contribution to the evaluation of workbased counselling and psychological therapy. Further we argue that such an evaluation can assist in the process of formulation, and thereby the effective targeting of interventions. This article briefly reviews the concept of QoWL, and goes on to discuss the relevance of this concept in the work-based counselling and psychological therapy setting. Finally, a freely available measure of QoWL, the Work Related Quality of Life Scale, is reviewed by way of illustration.

Content and FocusIn this paper I explore the vexed questìoH of how we choose a suitable methodology when undertaking qualitative research in counselling psychology. Drawing on computing I put forward an algorithm in the form of a set of questions to help make the decision. These include the volume, quality and analysis of the expected data, and the role of the researcher and researcher’s own data within some of the commonly used methodologies. Finally I suggest that it is well worth slowly repeating these decision making processes, (iteration) until the outcome is clear.