My name is Niamh McCartan, and I am a fourth-year student in the Bachelor of Science in Counselling and Psychotherapy programme at PCI College.I invite you to take part in the following piece of research –
A qualitative study examining student and pre-accredited therapists’ encounters with client’s socio-political attitudes and values.
Socio-political attitudes and values as described by Redding and Cobb are “politically relevant social and cultural issues” (2023, p. 2). Examples of socio-political attitudes and values can be, but are not limited to,opinions and beliefs about immigration policy, LGBT rights, abortion, covid-19 and vaccination, the housing crisis, climate change, war etc.
What is the aim of the study? Its purpose is to explore how new therapists in Ireland interact with these values as they emerge in therapy and how they feel their initial training impacted their experience. This study will add to the current literature and provide contemporary Irish data on the subject.
Who can participate?Trainee and pre-accredited counsellors/psychotherapists who are members of IACP or IAHIP.Trainee therapists must have completed a minimum of 60 hours of client work. Participants are not required to have interest/knowledgeor possess a particular position on social or political issues.
What does participation involve?If you decide to take part in the research, you will be invited to participate in a 45-60 minute recorded interview online at a time suitable to you. Before the start of the interview, you will be allowed to ask as many questions as you like about the research, what your participation involves and you will also read and sign a consent form to indicate that you understand your rights concerning this research and that you are happy to participate. Information collected about you during the research will be kept strictly confidential and made anonymous.
What are the risks of involvement? It is anticipated that there will be no associated risks involved with participating in this piece of research. Please note that you are free to stop the interview at any time or withdraw the information you have provided without giving a reason. Participants will also have debriefing support from another counsellor during and up to one hour after the interview.
What will happen with the information gathered at interview? Your interview recording will remain confidential and anonymous. Data from this research will be retained securelyin a password protected file for five years and will only be viewed by the researcher. The results of this study will be presented as a dissertation thesis but may also be used in various academic conference papers of publication.
If you have any questions or are unclear about any of the information provided above, or you wish to take part in an interview please contact Niamh McCartan via email niamhann.mccartan@pcicollege-edu.ie
Research interviews to begin September 23rd.
Thank you for your consideration.
Ref: Redding, R. E., & Cobb, C. (2023). Socio-political values as the deep culture in culturally-competent psychotherapy. Clinical Psychological Science, 11(4), 666–682.
