Person-Centred counselling students' experiences during their training

372 Pages·2017·3.09 MB·English

Being and Doing in Relationship: Person-Centred counselling students’
experiences during their training

David Taylor-Jones M.A.

This thesis is submitted for the qualification
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

University of East Anglia
Faculty of Social Sciences
School of Education and Lifelong Learning

th
March 9 2017
"This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone
who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with
the author and that use of any information derived there from must be
in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any
quotation or extract must include full attribution.”

D. A. Taylor-Jones 1
Abstract
This qualitative study explores the experiences of students training in Person-Centred
Counselling. The study focuses on students’ perceptions of their relationships with their
teachers and peers to develop a better understanding of how these might influence their
development during training. Material was collected from a series of semi-structured
interviews at the beginning, middle and end of the course. The intention was to develop
rich descriptive accounts of individual participants’ perceptions as they developed over
their training. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed to generate themes
from the interviews. To assist the reflective process, participants also completed
Strathclyde Inventories.
This study illustrates how each student experienced their training as idiosyncratic and
complex. Unconditional positive regard was found to be significant to personal
development within this context. However, perceptions of this concept and how it was
operationalised within the course varied. A lack of unconditional empathic
acknowledgement of difference was found to have a potentially shaming and/or painful
impact that could negatively affect a student’s sense of self and their engagement with the
training. A potentially problematic relationship emerged between a non -directive approach
to training and students’ need for direction. The influence of the course’s conceptualisation
of congruence on students’ development emerged as a complex and potentially
problematic theme. Groupwork emerged as a contentious strategy for personal
development. This study highlights the value of open dialogue between teachers and
students about a number of specific aspects of the training , including the students’ and the
course’s conceptualisation of the approach. The study also raises questions about the value
of focusing on a single therapeutic approach early in training. Finally, the study
acknowledges that Person-Centred counselling training involves aspects of both doing and
being in relationships, the dynamics of which need to be managed sensitively.

D. A. Taylor-Jones 2
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the invaluable support of my supervisors throughout this
project. I would also like to thank my participants who courageously shared their stories
and their course leaders who generously gave me access to their students. Finally, I want
to thank my wife, Jo, for her loving support, her consistent patience and her enduring
sense of humour.
D. A. Taylor-Jones 3
Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 3
Contents ................................................................................................................................. 4
List of tables ........................................................................................................................... 9
List of figures ........................................................................................................................ 10
Thesis outline ....................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 1: The context ......................................................................................................... 12
1.1 My interest ................................................................................................................. 12
1.2 Counselling Training ................................................................................................... 13
1.3 Myself ......................................................................................................................... 14
1.4 The project .................................................................................................................. 15
Chapter 2: Preliminary definitions ....................................................................................... 16
2.1 Person-Centred ........................................................................................................... 16
Therapeutic Conditions ................................................................................................. 16
Congruence ................................................................................................................... 17
Experience, perception and subception ....................................................................... 18
The self-concept............................................................................................................ 18
Conditions of Worth ..................................................................................................... 19
2.2 Counselling ................................................................................................................. 19
2.3 Training ....................................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 3: Preliminary discussions ...................................................................................... 21
3.1 Becoming a counsellor ............................................................................................... 21
3.2 Relating to a theoretical approach ............................................................................. 24
3.3 Training ....................................................................................................................... 25
3.4 Trajectories and expectations for professional training ............................................ 27
D. A. Taylor-Jones 4
3.5 Person-Centred Training ............................................................................................ 29
3.6 The ‘hyphen’ ............................................................................................................... 31
3.7 Bringing the preliminary discussions together ........................................................... 32
Chapter 4: The philosophical basis of this study .................................................................. 34
4.1 Phenomenology .......................................................................................................... 34
4.2 Acknowledging the context ........................................................................................ 36
Chapter 5: Methodology ...................................................................................................... 39
5.1 What did I set out to do? ............................................................................................ 39
5.2 How did I set out to do it? .......................................................................................... 40
5.3 Why IPA? .................................................................................................................... 45
5.4 The development of my research question ............................................................... 47
5.5 Validity ........................................................................................................................ 55
5.6 Ethics........................................................................................................................... 55
Chapter 6: Methods ............................................................................................................. 59
6.1 Working with individuals or with groups? ................................................................. 59
6.2 Sampling and access ................................................................................................... 60
6.3 The interviews ............................................................................................................ 64
Stage 1 Interviews ......................................................................................................... 66
Stage 2 & 3 Interviews .................................................................................................. 66
After each interview ..................................................................................................... 66
Reflecting on the interview process ............................................................................. 67
After all the interviews ................................................................................................. 68
6.4 Preparing for the analysis ........................................................................................... 68
6.5 Triangulation............................................................................................................... 69
Chapter 7: The process of analysis ....................................................................................... 71
7.1 Selection of cases for analysis .................................................................................... 71
D. A. Taylor-Jones 5
A split within the sample .............................................................................................. 71
Difficult choices ............................................................................................................. 72
Choosing individual participants ................................................................................... 72
Focusing on the sense of self ........................................................................................ 73
7.2 Analysing the stages ................................................................................................... 73
7.3 Analysing each participant’s process ......................................................................... 76
7.4 Comparing across the stages ...................................................................................... 77
7.5 Comparing across the processes ................................................................................ 78
7.6 Reviewing and editing the analysis ............................................................................ 78
7.7 Generating the meta-themes ..................................................................................... 79
Chapter 8: The stories .......................................................................................................... 80
8.1 Contextual background .............................................................................................. 80
8.2 Victoria’s story ............................................................................................................ 81
Some background ......................................................................................................... 81
Victoria’s Stage 1 Interview .......................................................................................... 82
Victoria’s Stage 2 Interview .......................................................................................... 92
Victoria’s Stage 3 Interview ........................................................................................101
Victoria’s process ........................................................................................................109
8.3 Johnny’s story ...........................................................................................................117
Some background .......................................................................................................117
Johnny’s Stage 1 Interview .........................................................................................118
Johnny’s Stage 2 Interview .........................................................................................124
Johnny’s Stage 3 Interview .........................................................................................135
Johnny’s process .........................................................................................................148
8.4 Maggie’s story ..........................................................................................................153
Some background .......................................................................................................153
D. A. Taylor-Jones 6
Maggie’s Stage 1 Interview .........................................................................................154
Maggie’s Stage 2 Interview .........................................................................................161
Maggie’s Stage 3 Interview .........................................................................................173
Maggie’s process.........................................................................................................184
8.5 Comparing across the interviews .............................................................................190
The Stage 1 Interviews ................................................................................................190
The Stage 2 Interviews ................................................................................................193
The Stage 3 Interviews ................................................................................................196
8.6 Comparing the participants’ processes ....................................................................200
Chapter 9: Literature review ..............................................................................................205
9.1 Discussions about Counselling Training ...................................................................206
9.2 Empirical studies .......................................................................................................226
9.3 First person accounts ...............................................................................................246
Chapter 10: Discussion .......................................................................................................258
10.1 On being a stranger in a strange land ....................................................................258
Being a stranger ..........................................................................................................258
In a strange land .........................................................................................................264
10.2 What are we all doing here? ..................................................................................268
10.3 Therapist congruence; being myself and/or being Person-Centred ......................279
Chapter 11: Conclusions and implications of this study ....................................................288
11.1 Some reflections on the research process .............................................................288
11.2 Limitations of the study ..........................................................................................290
11.3 The findings ............................................................................................................291
11.4 Summary of implications for Person-Centred counselling training .......................302
11.5 Ideas for further research ......................................................................................303
11.6 What I’m taking away from this .............................................................................304
D. A. Taylor-Jones 7
References ..........................................................................................................................306
Appendices .........................................................................................................................315
Appendix 1 Initial recruitment email..............................................................................315
Appendix 2 Advertisement .............................................................................................316
Appendix 3 Participant Information Sheet .....................................................................317
Appendix 4 Participant Consent Form ...........................................................................319
Appendix 5 Participant personal details ........................................................................320
Appendix 6 Strathclyde Inventory (SI) ............................................................................321
Appendix 7 First contact email .......................................................................................323
Appendix 8 Second interview invitation email ...............................................................324
Appendix 9 Third interview invitation email ..................................................................325
Appendix 10 Interview Schedule ....................................................................................326
Appendix 11 Maggie, third interview extract.................................................................327
Appendix 12 Maggie, descriptive case study extract .....................................................367

D. A. Taylor-Jones 8
List of tables
Table 1: Victoria’s Themes ................................................................................................... 81
Table 2: Victoria’s Process Themes ....................................................................................110
Table 3: Johnny’s Themes ..................................................................................................117
Table 4: Johnny’s Process Themes .....................................................................................148
Table 5: Maggie’s Themes ..................................................................................................153
Table 6: Maggie’s Process Themes ....................................................................................184
Table 7: Stage 1 Interview Themes ....................................................................................190
Table 8: Stage 2 Interview Themes ....................................................................................193
Table 9: Stage 3 Interview Themes ....................................................................................196
Table 10: Themes from the processes ...............................................................................200

D. A. Taylor-Jones 9
List of figures
Figure 1 SI Extract ................................................................................................................. 65
Figure 2: Generating Tables of Emergent Themes for each participant .............................. 74
Figure 3: Generating Tables of Process Emergent Themes for each participant ................ 76
Figure 4: Generating material for comparison: across the interview stages ...................... 77
Figure 5: Generating material for comparison: across the processes ................................ 78
Figure 6: Victoria’s SI Data .................................................................................................114
Figure 7: Johnny’s SI Data ..................................................................................................151
Figure 8: Maggie’s SI Data ..................................................................................................188
Figure 9: SI Data Comparisons ...........................................................................................204
Figure 10: Discussions ........................................................................................................206
Figure 11: Empirical Studies ...............................................................................................226
Figure 12: First Person Accounts ........................................................................................246

D. A. Taylor-Jones 10