Division of Counselling Psychology: January 2025 newsletter

Welcome to the first e-newsletter of 2025!

I hope you've all managed to keep yourselves warm despite the storms and the snow. I'm hopeful that this month's issue will bring you some excitement and joy, as I'm pleased to say it contains details of our 31st Annual Conference taking place on 4 and 5 July in Bristol! Details for registration, submissions and bursaries can be found below.

In addition you can also find an interview with our chair Dr Brian Murray which makes for very interesting reading. Finally, you'll also find calls for research participants from trainees!

As always, if you have anything that you would like to contribute, please do email me to discuss: [email protected]

Warmest wishes,

Helena Fitzpatrick

Editor

Nominations open for prestigious BPS Awards

Nominations are now open for the BPS Presidents' Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge.

This prestigious award celebrates mid-career psychologists who have made significant research contributions to their field, whether through publications, supporting early-career researchers, or championing research initiatives.

To nominate someone, you'll need to complete a nomination form and submit evidence of how the nominee meets the criteria, three references, and the nominee's CV (if available). Nominations close on Sunday, 27 April 2025.

The winner will receive Life Membership of the BPS and a commemorative certificate. For more information on how to nominate, visit the BPS website.

Nominations open for the BPS Lifetime Achievement Award

This award recognises individuals who have made a substantial and lasting impact on psychological research and knowledge. Nominees may have a record of extensive academic publications, championed early-career researchers, or promoted their field through committees, networks, and professional groups.

To nominate, complete a nomination form and provide evidence of how the nominee meets the criteria, three references, and the nominee's CV (if available). Nominations close on Sunday 27 April 2025.

The winner will receive Lifetime BPS Membership, a commemorative certificate, and £1,000 to further their research.

For more information and to submit your nomination, visit the BPS website.

Division of Counselling Psychology 2025 Annual Conference

Registrations now open for DCoP Annual Conference 2025: Visionaries of Psychologically Informed Practice: Physical Health and Beyond

Date: 4-5 July

Location: DoubleTree by Hilton, Bristol

This two-day event will provide a forum to network, learn and share thoughts and ideas. In addition to the conference, there will be options to join the social activities including a walking tour and an evening dinner at Harbour House Restaurant with entertainment.

This year, our annual conference explores physical health and the innovative ways that psychological practitioners have developed in this diverse field. Population health and embodied ways of working are now part and parcel of the everyday work that we do as counselling psychologists. At conference, we're hoping you'll be inspired and learn new and creative ways to work with physical health and apply and adapting modernist ways of working that help us to meet the needs of our clinical populations and ourselves.

As we venture to the creative wonderland of Bristol for DCoP Conference, we invite contributions that speak to, problematise, expand and riff-off work that we do with physical health in non-traditional environments and in non-traditional ways. Bristol and its creative atmosphere provides the perfect place to engage with creative aspects of working 'differently', applying psychologically-informed practice across different fields and in different ways.

Spaces for our event are limited, so ensure you register your interest promptly. We hope to see you in Bristol; you can register to attend via our registration portal.

DCoP Conference 2025 - call for submissions

Submission deadlines

Presentations, Workshops, Symposia and Discussion/Panel sessions: 18 March 2025

Posters and Pecha Kucha presentations: 18 March 2025

Psychologists are known for their flexibility and capacity to work across various settings, some of which require a non-traditionalist approach to clinical practice in the use of therapeutic modalities.

Psychologically informed practice (PiP), is a framework that is typically used in health and medical settings for interventions that include a specific focus on psychological factors and working with the systems involved. It has been promoted as a 'middle way' between traditional health care and psychological care and involves working with systems and using systemic approaches and integrating practice with that of non-psychology-specific or mental health professionals.

It also involves working with different mediums and forums and offering direct and indirect psychological interventions. Other settings that use PiP include forensic settings, homelessness settings, charity settings and occupational or wellbeing settings.

Contributions

We're interested in contributions that showcase pioneering and dynamic ways of working therapeutically including innovative approaches to tackling issues and presenting new under-explored problems and practitioners applying 'new' knowledge to 'old' scenarios, populations and systems.

You are invited to share your experiences and knowledge from all areas of applied psychology and to submit abstracts addressing this theme through:

• Professional practice
• Theory / opinion papers
• Community engagement
• Creative research dissemination
• Research

We also want to encourage you to submit work that may not appear immediately relevant to the theme, but which may be equally important. Abstracts should pay attention to intersectionality, creativity and diversity. Submissions can be in the format of oral presentations, workshops, symposia, discussion panels, poster or Pecha Kucha presentations and our newly established format of creative research dissemination.

We especially welcome submissions from experienced, recently qualified, and trainee counselling psychologists. A comprehensive guide and further information about making submissions will be available on the conference's submission site under 'submission guidelines'. Final decisions on abstracts submitted will be made early April 2025.

Remember, it's YOUR conference, and YOUR input is what makes the conference, so make it count!

Call for bursaries: trainee and newly-qualified counselling psychologists

Would you like to make a presentation and be funded to attend the DCoP conference?

We're pleased to announce that the Division of Counselling Psychology currently has 20 bursaries available for trainee and newly qualified counselling psychologists (extended to two years post-qualification).

Trainees who have at least a poster accepted for presentation at the conference and newly-qualified counselling psychologists who have at least a research paper, symposium or workshop accepted will be eligible to apply for a bursary.

How to apply

You can complete the bursary specific questions at the bottom of the abstract submission form to submit your bursary.

• If you are making a presentation, you will be required to present in person. Posters can include research proposals with or without complete data.
• The conference is an opportunity for you to get advice about your proposal or your study from other professionals in the field, or recruit participants to your study.

Poster presenters will also need to attend in person. Each bursary will cover two days' conference attendance and the conference dinner but will not cover accommodation or travel.

You must be a registered student member or full member of the Division of Counselling Psychology in order to apply. Procedures for submitting your work can be found under the relevant tabs.

Bursary application deadline: 18 March 2025

Interview with our Chair, Dr Brian Murray

'I want counselling psychology to be seen for its unique value'

DCoP Chair, Dr Brian Murray, shares his journey from studying A-level psychology to becoming a consultant counselling psychologist. In an insightful interview, he discusses his vision for counselling psychology, the need for fairness in training, and opportunities for collaboration with the wider psychological workforce.

Dr Murray also reflects on the challenges and rewards of his role in CAMHS and his work as a senior practice tutor, supporting the next generation. Outside of psychology, he shares glimpses of his island life on the Isle of Man and his love for travel and theatre.

Read the full interview to learn more about his career and hopes for the future of counselling psychology.

Networks and Groups

DCoP Black and Asian Counselling Psychologists Group (BACPG)

The DCoP BACPG provides community, raises awareness, and shares resources for Counselling Psychologists of Black or Asian backgrounds/origin. This group is being chaired by Dr Khushi Haria.

Contact email: [email protected]

Environmental and Climate Crisis reading group!

All DCoP members are welcome to this reading group. This group is intended to be a place to develop our knowledge and engagement with the climate and environmental crisis and to offer a supportive place to share our personal reactions to this knowledge, as well as to develop our capacity to support clients in their reactions to this global crisis.

Please email [email protected] for information regarding the next date, the associated reading and the link to join.

Trainee Research Participation Requests

Making meaning of female counselling psychologists' countertransference in relation to sexual material: A critical feminist narrative analysis.

Makayla Ross at University of Roehampton - Supervised by: Dr Tony Evans and Dr Paul Dickerson

I am looking to interview eight female counselling psychology trainees and recent counselling psychology graduates in order to better understand how they make meaning of their countertransference experiences in relation to their client's sexual material.

I hope that the research will shed light on the ways in which counselling psychologists navigate and make meaning of their countertransference experiences and feelings in relation to sexual discussions in therapy and the role that gender plays in these interactions.

This study seeks to expand the limited psychoanalytic research on countertransference in discussions of sex in therapy by adopting a broader definition of countertransference than has been used in prior empirical research. By exploring the socio-political dimensions of countertransference and its role in therapeutic relationships, it addresses gaps in the theoretical and empirical literature on this topic. The findings could inform psychotherapeutic practice, supervision and training, while also contributing to the wider literature on discussions of sex and gender. It is in these discussions that our deepest anxieties, preoccupations, and desires are revealed.

If you are a female counselling psychologist in your final year of training or have completed your counselling psychology training within the past five years, and have had a significant countertransference reaction to your client's sexual material, then you are eligible to take part in this study. If you are open to speaking about your experience and meaning making process, I would be very interested to hear from you.

What can you expect?

The one-to-one interview will take place at an agreed date and time via Microsoft Teams. The interview will last approximatively one to two hours. Interviews will be confidential, and your and your client's identity will be protected.

How can you get involved?

An initial conversation will take place online or over the phone between any potential participants and the researcher to discuss if you are eligible to take part in the study. To find out if you are eligible to take part in this study or if you have any questions, please contact Makayla, at [email protected]

An interpretative phenomenological analysis of counselling psychologists' and psychotherapy clients' experiences of expressive arts activities within trauma-focused therapeutic processes

Karen Eilidh Thomson at Glasgow Caledonian University - Supervised by Dr. Kevin Hogan

Hello! 

My name is Karen Eilidh Thomson and I'm in my final stage of professional training in counselling psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University. My final year empirical project explores how expressive arts activities (such as expressive drawing/painting, dance or music) used within trauma-focused psychological interventions are experienced from both the psychologist's perspective and the client's perspective. 

If you are:

• A UK-based chartered counselling psychologist OR a retired counselling psychologist (within the last six months)
• Someone who has completed or is undertaking a one-to-one psychological intervention to address psychological trauma (complex trauma, single-event trauma or both) with one or more adult clients, featuring activities within your therapy that make use of the expressive arts as part of the therapeutic process (e.g., making use of musical expression, writing poetry, drawing feelings out, crafts, etc.)
• Willing to represent/symbolise something that you or a client made/did/used in therapy as part of this expressive arts activity, bring it along to an interview, and photograph it for inclusion in the research. 

We would love to hear more about your experiences! 

As a potential participant, you are invited to firstly use the link provided to be taken to our online questionnaire, which provides more information about the study, and a consent form.

After consenting to the study, the survey asks for some more basic demographical information about you, aspects of your professional training and therapeutic practice to date. After completing this questionnaire, you are invited to participate in an item-elicitation interview online (MS Teams) or in-person (at Glasgow Caledonian University campus) at a time that's convenient for you. 

You will then be asked to photograph the item(s) you brought to interview and send the photographs to the researcher for inclusion in the final report. The research team anticipates that your total participation time will be around two hours, perhaps taking less or more time depending on how much you might like to elaborate upon your answers within the sign-up form and/or the interview.

As a token of thanks, we will also provide you with a £10 voucher for a choice of retailers once your participation in the study is complete. If you wish to attend for an in-person interview, a further £10 cash can be provided to support your travel expenses for attendance on Glasgow Caledonian University campus. 

All data you provide will be handled at all stages of the research process in compliance with the BPS Code of Human Research Ethics (2021), and UK Data Protection legislation and GDPR legislation. The protocol for this study has been approved on 1 November 2024 by the GCU Ethics Committee, ethics approval code HLS/PSY/24/023.

If you have any questions about this study you are very welcome to contact the student researcher by email: Karen Thomson – Trainee Counselling Psychologist, Glasgow Caledonian University, Student Researcher

Next issue

The next e-newsletter is due to be with you at the end of February, so please send all inclusions to the editor by 15 February 2025 by emailing: [email protected]