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Research Committee
The Research Committee is a forum in which strategic thinking about research policy and development takes place. It brings creativity and intellectual weight to BACP, to help shape research policy and activity. It comprises a Chair and members with specialist research interests as well as Committee members from external academic and professional bodies and international researchers.
The committee is an independent, expert, consultative group for the Head of Research and BACP. Its remit is to:
- Act as an independent Think Tank for the organisation. One of its key contributions will be to advise on facilitating a research culture within BACP and the profession.
- Advise on research issues and support BACP’s role in using evidence to engage in public debate and education about counselling and psychotherapy research.
- Consider strategies to identify and address the key challenges in research for BACP.
- Advise on the development of policy to embed research within the organisation and the profession.
- Ensure developments are timely and related to long-term objectives.
- Function as an independent, expert, consultative group for the Head of Research and BACP.
- Advise the Board of Governors on policy issues relating to research.
A list of the current committee members and their interests follows:
Professor Mark Aveline
Emeritus Consultant in Psychotherapy and Psychiatry, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
Mark Aveline is Emeritus Consultant in Psychotherapy and Psychiatry, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Honorary Professor of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester. In 2002, Mark Aveline retired after 27 years as consultant psychotherapist in Nottingham where he founded a "one-stop" integrated specialist NHS service in psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy. The service has close links with psychiatry and is dedicated to providing effective and relevant patient care. He is particularly interested in brief individual therapy, interpersonally orientated group therapy, training, research and the use of technology in healthcare. In 1981, he co-founded the South Trent Training in Dynamic Psychotherapy, a NHS specialist training which registers its graduates through the Psychoanalytic Section of UKCP. For several years, he was in charge of specialist psychotherapy training in the Royal College of Psychiatrists, served on the Governing Board of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy and was President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. In 2003–4, he was President of the Society for Psychotherapy Research and was formerly President of the UK Chapter.
Dr Pete Bower
Psychologist and Reader in health services research, University of Manchester
Peter Bower is a psychologist and Reader in health services research working at the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre, University of Manchester. He has been involved in the evaluation of psychological therapies in primary care for over 10 years, beginning by working on a large randomised trial of counselling and cognitive-behaviour therapy funded by the Health Technology Assessment Programme before completing a Cochrane review on counselling in primary care. Since then he has developed interests in a wide range of psychological therapy models in primary care (including counselling, self management and collaborative care) and has continued his interests in different methods of evaluating psychological treatments. He is currently involved in evaluations of self help and collaborative care funded by the Medical Research Council, and the evaluation of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies project for the Service Delivery and Organisation programme. He has worked as an advisor to BACP on the development of their systematic review work over the past 2 years.
Professor Louis Castonguay
Professor of Psychology, Penn State University
Dr. Castonguay completed his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, a clinical internship at U.C. Berkeley, and a Post-doctorate at Stanford University. He is currently Professor at the Department of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University, where he conducts research on the process of change in different forms of psychotherapy (cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and integrative), especially for the treatment of anxiety disorders and depression. Within this context, he has investigated several factors related to the client (e.g., emotional experience), therapist (e.g., focus of intervention) and the therapeutic relationship (e.g., working alliance). He is also involved in the investigation of the efficacy of new integrative treatments for generalized anxiety disorder and depression. His publications included co-edited books with Larry Beutler (on empirically based principles of change in psychotherapy), Clara Hill (on insight in psychotherapy) and Conrad Lecomte (on the integration movement in psychotherapy). He has received the Early Career Contribution Award from the Society of Psychotherapy Research, the Jack D. Krasner Memorial Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) Division of Psychotherapy, and the David Shakow Early Career Award from the APA Division of Clinical Psychology. With Thomas Borkovec and Stephen Ragusea, he has also received the Pennsylvania Psychological Association Presidential Award for their work on a state-wide Practice-Research Network. In addition, he has recently received the Distinguished Psychologist Award from the APA Division of Psychotherapy. He has been elected as General Vice President of the international Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) and serves on the Steering Committee of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI). He served as President of The North American Society for Psychotherapy Research (NASPR) and co-chaired (with Larry Beutler) the APA Division of Clinical Psychology and NASPR Task Force on Empirically Based Principles of Therapeutic Change. He has co-chaired (with Clara Hill) The Penn State Conferences on The Process of Change, which has regrouped prominent psychotherapy researchers interested in delineating quantitative and qualitative methods that can help us better understand how clients' change. He is currently chairing the Pennsylvania Psychological Association-Practice Research Network (PPA PRN), as well as the committee responsible for the creation and implementation of a Practice Research Network at the Psychology Clinic of the Penn State University. With David Kraus, he is also in the process of creating a National Research Practice Network, which will allow them to develop a large infrastructure for the conduct of clinically meaningful and scientifically rigorous studies on the process and outcome of psychotherapy. These are part of a number of initiatives that he has been involved in with the goal of fostering an active collaboration between researchers and clinicians. He also maintains a part-time private practice.
Professor Mick Cooper
Professor of Counselling, University of Strathclyde
Mick Cooper is a Professor of Counselling at the University of Strathclyde, and a UKCP-registered existential psychotherapist. He is author of Existential Therapies (Sage, 2003), co-author of Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2005) and co-editor of Politicizing the Person-Centred Approach (PCCS Books, 2006) as well as the forthcoming Handbook of Person-Centered Therapy (Palgrave, 2007). In addition to writing about person-centred, existential and self-pluralistic approaches to therapy, Mick has undertaken two in-depth investigations of school-based counselling services, for which he was awarded the BACP’s Recognising Achievement in Counselling and Psychotherapy award in 2005. Mick is a member of the Scottish Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Consortium and co-Director, with Professor John McLeod, of the Tayside Counselling Clinic. He lives in Glasgow with his partner and three daughters.
Professor Robert Elliott
Professor of Counselling, University of Strathclyde
Robert Elliott is Professor of Counselling, at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA in 1978. He taught at the University of Toledo 1978-2006, where he was Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for the Study of Experiential Psychotherapy; he has also held visiting faculty positions as Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), York University (Canada), University of Sheffield (UK), and La Trobe University (Australia). He served as President of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (2000-2001) and as co-editor of the journal Psychotherapy Research (1994-1998). He is the author of four books, including Facilitating emotional change (1993, with Leslie Greenberg and Laura Rice), Research methods for clinical psychology (2nd ed., 2003, with Chris Barker & Nancy Pistrang), and Learning process-experiential psychotherapy (2004, with Jeanne Watson, Rhonda Goldman, and Leslie Greenberg); as well as more than 90 journal articles or book chapters. He is a Fellow in the Divisions of Psychotherapy and Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association and is the 2008 recipient of the Carl Rogers Award from the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association.
Professor Paul Gilbert
Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and Consultant Psychologist at Derbyshire Mental Health Services NHS Trust
Paul is a full Professor at the university of Derby and consultant at Derbyshire Mental health trust. He has a visiting Professorship at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and Coimbria (Portugal). He has been a Fellow of the British Psychological Society since 1993. He is a past committee member and then president of the International Society for Evolutionary Approaches to Psychopathology (1992) and a committee member and past president of British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy (2001-2004). He was also on the NICE committee for the Depression Guideline (2002-2004). He has authored over 100 academic papers and book chapters’ and authored/edited 12 books. He has researched and written extensively in the areas of mood disorder, social anxiety and psychosis. His Overcoming Depression self-help book is now a book on prescription scheme. In addition he has a specific interest in cross diagnostic processes relating to shame and stigma. Through his career he has focused on evolutionary mechanisms underpinning vulnerabilities to psychological problems with a specific focus on attachment and social ranking systems. Individuals who have been unable to develop secure attachment may often use social ranking systems to organise self-other information and roles. A third focus in therapy has been to help people from troubled backgrounds, who have high shame and self-criticism to develop self-compassion based on self-reflection self-empathy, warmth and kindness. This is called Compassion Focused Therapy. To help advance compassionate approaches to psychological and other human problems he established a charity called the compassionate mind foundation. www.compassionatemind.co.uk. His recent books include: Gilbert , P. (2005). Compassion: Conceptualisations, Research and Use in Psychotherapy. London. Routledge, Gilbert, P. (2007). Psychotherapy and Counseling for Depression: London Sage, Gilbert P & Leahy, R (2007). Therapeutic Relationship in the Cognitive Behaviour Psychotherapies London. Routledge. He has recently developed a series of talks to be used in self-help contexts (Overcoming Depression) and is researching their usefulness
Professor Else Guthrie (Chair)
Professor of Psychological Medicine & Medical Psychotherapy, University of Manchester
Else Guthrie is Professor of Psychological Medicine & Medical Psychotherapy at the University of Manchester and Chair of the BACP Research Committee. Professor Guthrie is a past UK President of the Society of Psychotherapy Research. She is Programme Director of the North West Higher Training Scheme in General Psychiatry and also Secretary of the Liaison Section of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Professor Guthrie was previously audit coordinator for the Psychiatry Directorate, MRI (1994–98).
Professor Guthrie is particularly interested in research around functional gastrointestinal disorders, especially Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS); psychodynamic therapy of IBS; chronic functional dyspepsia and chronic somatisation patients. Professor Guthrie has shown in formal trial designs how a new brief psychotherapy is effective in unresponsive psychiatric disorder and medically unexplained symptoms. She has shown its cost effectiveness compared to drug treatment in an MRC funded trial in IBS. She has also recently demonstrated the effectiveness of brief psychotherapy in deliberate self-harm.
Professor Gillian Hardy
Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Sheffield
Gillian Hardy is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sheffield. She has published extensively on process and outcome psychotherapy research and for many years worked with a team of clinicians and researchers in a research clinic for the treatment of depression. The clinic offered both psychodynamic-interpersonal and cognitive therapy and was originally based at the University of Sheffield and then moved to the Psychological Therapies Research Centre at the University of Leeds. Currently she is involved in the evaluation of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) pilot sites and in running the training programmes for the IAPT workers. She is also Director of the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training programme and is co-Editor of the British Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Dr Andrew Reeves (CPR Editor)
University Counsellor, Supervisor and Freelance Trainer
Andrew Reeves is a BACP Senior Accredited Practitioner who has worked at the University of Liverpool Student Counselling Service for the past nine years. Prior to this he worked in psychiatric services as a counsellor and Approved Social Worker. He was based within a multi-disciplinary mental health team undertaking statutory and non-statutory mental health assessments in addition to providing individual and group therapy. He also worked within a mental health crisis team offering out-of-hours intervention to people experiencing acute mental health distress. As a Social Worker he has also worked in child protection and with vulnerable adults (he continues to be a Registered Social Worker). As a researcher Andrew’s interest lies in counselling and psychotherapy interventions with people who are suicidal. His doctoral thesis was entitled, “Assessing suicide risk in counselling: training counsellors to integrate suicide risk assessment into the therapeutic discourse.” He has completed an MA and MSc in counselling and psychotherapy, the latter providing an opportunity to undertake a small scale study considering how counsellors use CORE risk data in a dialogic assessment of suicide risk. He has published several articles and co-authored the BACP Information Sheet, “Working with Suicidal Clients” and is currently co-authoring a BACP Information Sheet on self-injury. He is co-editor (with Professor Windy Dryden) of Key Issues for Counselling in Action: Second Edition which is due to publication in 2008 and is single author of Counselling Suicidal Clients, again due for publication in 2008 (both by Sage).
Nancy Rowland
Director of Research, Policy and Professional Practice, BACP
Nancy Rowland has been involved with BACP for many years, as a counsellor and a researcher, with an interest in research into counselling in health care settings. Having worked at the Centre for Health Economics and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York, Nancy joined BACP in 2003 as Head of Research, and her appointment signifies BACP’s commitment both to research, and to developing as a learned society.
She works with the International Research Committee on developing BACP’s research strategy and with the research team on the implementation of that strategy. The key aims are to develop a research culture within BACP and to contribute to the evidence base for counselling and psychotherapy.
In common with the team, she is committed to evidence based practice. With a colleague from the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre she maintains a Cochrane review on the cost effectiveness of counselling in primary care. She has published on Evidence Based Counselling and Psychological Therapies and is interested in methodological developments which aim to synthesise qualitative research data. Current research includes work with a primary care research group on consumer defined outcomes; this reflects Nancy’s interest in the consumer voice in counselling and psychotherapy.
Professor Bernhard Strauss
Professor of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany and Head of the Institute of Psychotherapy Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital
Dr. Bernhard Michael Strauss is currently Full Professor of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany and head of the Institute of Psychosocial Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital. He completed his training in psychology at the University of Constance (Southern Germany), and his doctorate at the University of Hamburg. Following a five year position at the Psychiatric Hospital of Hamburg University (Deptartment of Sex Research), he worked as an Associate Professor at the University Hospital at Kiel (Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy) between 1986 and 1996. During this time he completed his psychotherapeutic training as a psychoanalyst with additional special trainings in group psychotherapy as well as sex therapy.
Scientifically, he started to work within studies on the psychoendocrinology of male and female sexuality. At the University of Kiel, he was principal investigator in a variety of research projects dealing with psychological aspects of infertility including psychosocial interventions, inpatient group psychotherapy and the influence of attachment on coping with somatic diseases. As the head of the Institute at Jena University, he was/is involved in research projects from the fields of psychotherapy research, psychooncology, prevention, medical and psychotherapeutic education, health psychology etc. Currently, he is chairing a task force providing an expertise for the German Ministry of Health recommending structural changes of psychotherapy training in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Bernhard Strauss was a member of the Executive Committee of the German Society for Sex Research; he is past president of the German College of Psychosomatic Medicine and the German Society for Medical Psychology, and currently (2008-2009) President of the International Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR).
He has published more than 40 books, almost 200 book chapters and more than 240 journal articles.