The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural (CBT) and psychodynamic (PDT) therapies in the treatment of anxiety among university students. To this aim, the Symptom Questionnaire (SQ) was completed by 30 students assigned to CBT and by 24 students assigned to PDT, both at the beginning and at the end of…

Interoceptive exposure (IE) is a standard component of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for panic disorder and agoraphobia. The virtual reality (VR) program "Panic-Agoraphobia" has several virtual scenarios designed for applying exposure to agoraphobic situations; it can also simulate physical sensations. This work examines…

This study sought to explore the impact of ending therapy on counsellors working with children in schools. Five counsellors were interviewed and their responses were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four master themes emerged, one of which, empathic identification, is the focus of this paper. The findings of this study…

The potential for career guidance to impact on well-being has received insufficient attention in the UK. There are both conceptual and empirical reasons to expect that the impacts may be positive, but a lack of evidence directly testing this proposition. Career guidance has commonalities with therapeutic counselling suggesting analogous effects,…

Beginning with Carl Rogers' exhortation for counsellors to be non-judgemental of their clients, this article explores the rationale for withholding judgement in therapy, including diagnostic judgement. It traces Rogers' incipient sociopolitical analysis as a foundation for this ethic and argues that Michel Foucault provides a stronger…

The article addresses the question of whether the practice of mandatory personal therapy, followed by several training organisations, is justified by existing research and evidence. In doing so, it discusses some implications of this training requirement from an ethical and ideological standpoint, raising questions of import for training…

We present an experience-near account of the development of therapeutic listening in first year counselling students. A phenomenological approach was employed to articulate the trainees' lived experiences of their learning. Six students who had just completed a one-year postgraduate certificate in counselling skills were interviewed and the…

Many young people in the UK and across the world, where austerity measures are biting deep, find themselves at a time of crisis and uncertainty in their lives. The assumptions previously held of clear and straightforward career paths are being challenged and "career" has come to mean more than simply "work" or "employment". This has implications…

The provision of online counselling and emotional support is a subject of intense debate among service providers. The subject is explored here by triangulating data from a statistical analysis of data from a children's helpline, interviews with practitioners and a focus group. Despite practitioners' concerns relating to misinterpretation,…

This paper challenges the neglect of psychotherapeutic methods in therapy research and discusses the use of methods arising directly from therapy practice to generate research data. Recent developments in therapy research culture are critiqued in order to contextualise the present contribution. The research design and methodology evolve from the…

General practitioners (GPs) treat more than 90% of common mental disorders. Their approaches to psychological interventions have been little studied and their process of understanding patients remains unexplored. This qualitative interview and observation study aimed to explore Danish GPs' approaches to emotional problems and mental disorders in…

Counselling and psychotherapy is attracting government interest and intervention, for instance the proposal to regulate the profession by the Health Professions Council. Many therapists see this as a threat to its fundamental principles due to the fact that government policy is influenced by the medical model and managerialism. This article looks,…

Recent policy and practice debates about the expansion of the talking therapies in the UK have been concerned with the ideological premise of the programme or with questions of effectiveness, cost-benefit, availability and access. For the most part, however, discussion of the needs and demands for such services has been largely abstracted from any…

Therapist self-disclosure is gaining empirical attention amidst theoretical discourse and ethical debate, particularly with regards to its influence on the therapeutic relationship. This paper presents part of a larger qualitative study that explored client experiences of therapist self-disclosure and specifically focuses on the therapeutic…

This overview sets therapeutic work with children in context. It begins with a rationale for why this work is necessary and describes and explores the needs and rights of children and young people. Resilience as a factor in mitigating the effects of distress is discussed and an overview of the history of therapeutic work is offered. Different…