My name is Liam Griffin, and I am a student in the MA in Applied Psychology (Mental Health) programme in University College, Cork (UCC). As part of the programme, I will be conducting research, supervised by Nicola Barry.
The purpose of the study is to explore Irish counsellors/psychotherapists’ experience of and sense of competence in working with clients of other ethnic/racial cultures. I am recruiting participants to take part in a one-to-one interview. The interview will be audio-recorded and is expected to take 30-40 minutes to complete and will take place online via Microsoft Teams.
The interview will address three key issues: (1) your experience of working with clients from other ethnic/racial cultures, and the impact that the cultural difference has in the therapy room, (2) cultural competence and your experience of enacting best practice guidelines, and (3) any personal and/or professional learnings from working with clients of other ethnic/racial cultures. The questions will be centred on your reflection on your experiences in practice, but no identifying or sensitive information will be sought.
The purpose of this study is to explore Irish counsellors/psychotherapists’ experience of and sense of competence in working with clients of other racial/ethnic cultures. Participants are required to not belong to a minority group, i.e. you have predominantly lived and worked in Ireland and you feel that you have been shaped by Irish culture. Participants are required to be qualified/have completed a recognised professional training in counselling/psychotherapy.
Should you choose to participate, you can refuse to answer specific questions, or decide to withdraw from the interview. Once the interview has been concluded, you can choose to withdraw your details at any time in the subsequent two weeks post-completion of the interview.
All the information you provide will be kept confidential and anonymous and will be available only to the researcher and the supervisor. The only exception is where information is disclosed which indicates that there is a serious risk to you or to others. The interview will be transcribed by the researcher, and all identifying information will be removed. Once this is done, the audio-recording will also be deleted and only the anonymized transcript will remain. This will be stored on the University College Cork OneDrive system and subsequently on the UCC server. The data will be stored for a minimum of ten years. The information you provide may contribute to research publications and/or conference presentations. This research will outline potential areas of development and learning for Irish counsellors/therapists in working with clients of other cultures. These learnings and points of development for counsellors/therapists will aid in clients of other cultures in receiving appropriate and effective mental health support in Ireland. We do not anticipate any negative outcomes from participating in this study. At the end of the procedure, I will discuss with you how you found the experience and how you are feeling.
This study has obtained ethical approval from the UCC School of Applied Psychology Ethics Committee.
If you wish to participate, or you would like to discuss the research, you can contact me via email at 116324146@umail.ucc.ie, or via phone on +353 86 248 2808.
