Invitation to participate in a research study

Dear Psychotherapist,

If you are an accredited humanistic integrative counsellor/psychotherapist and if you have an interest in the use of metaphors as therapeutic tools, I would like to invite you to participate in the following study.

My name is Helena Clark and I am in the final year of training towards a BSc (Hons) Counselling and Psychotherapy Top-up Programme with Cork Counselling Services Training Institute, Coventry University validated. This study is being completed as part of this degree programme.

My intention is to investigate the following research question: What is the role and impact of client metaphor in the therapeutic process in humanistic integrative counselling and psychotherapy ? I aim to explore humanistic integrative counsellors’ understanding of metaphor use as a therapeutic tool, their perception of the role and impact of client metaphor in the therapeutic process and their way of working with clients’ metaphors towards change and healing.

Data will be collected through a questionnaire with three demographic and six research questions. I expect the questionnaire to take approximately 15 - 20 minutes to complete. Participation is voluntary. Participants can withdraw from the research up to two weeks after completing the questionnaire and their data will be deleted.

This study has been approved by Cork Counselling Services Training Institute Ethics Committee. I abide by Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Code of Ethics and Practice for Counsellors/Psychotherapists (2018), British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Ethical Guidelines for Research in the Counselling Professions (2019) and by the General Data Protection Regulation Guidelines (2019).

Confidentiality will be guaranteed and data will be anonymised using pseudonyms chosen by participants. Signed consent forms and questionnaires will be securely stored in a personal, locked filing cabinet. Electronic files will be password protected and stored on a password protected device. Raw data will be destroyed after final assessment of the research report.

I would like to invite you to ask any questions you might have. Please contact me via contact details at the end of this invitation. And if you wish to take part in this research, please send me an email and I will forward you the questionnaire and the consent form.

The research is supervised by Cork Counselling Services Training Institute module leaders Gretchen Jordaan and Laura Maybury (contact number 021-4274951).

Thank you very much for your time.

Kind regards,

Helena Clark

Email: clarkhelena@icloud.com

Mobile: 0876366221