Nancy Rowland

Head Of Research 

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 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.

Contact: 01455 883372 or nancy.rowland@bacp.co.uk

Angela Couchman

Research Office Manager

Angela Couchman is the BACP Research Office Manager and her role involves the day-to-day management of Research Department activities and services. This includes providing support to the Head of Research and the Research Committee; running the research helpdesk, taking enquiries on all aspects of research; overseeing the development of the online research directory and managing the various peer review processes connected with research publications and conference material.

Angela organises the academic programme for the Research Conference, producing the timetable, abstracts booklet and all related materials. In addition, she assists in the production and promotion of research publications and supports the Editor of CPR. She also administers the research arm of the 'BACP Counselling and Psychotherapy Awards', the annual scheme to recognise achievement in counselling and psychotherapy research. As the Research Office Manager, Angela is committed to encouraging and supporting research activity amongst members, whilst being a resource for information for both members and non-members alike.

Contact: 01455 883318 or angela.couchman@bacp.co.uk

Kaye Richards

Research Facilitator

Kaye Richards is Research Facilitator and her role is to undertake research, promote research awareness and facilitate research into counselling and psychotherapy. A key part of her role at BACP is to encourage and support BACP members in understanding and doing research in counselling and psychotherapy. This includes being involved in research projects, examining and updating members on research funding opportunities, writing the research pages of Therapy Today, project managing BACP's Seed-corn Research Funding and other research funding initiatives, managing peer-review processes for a variety of publications, offering research surgeries to members and non-members, and developing a range of research activities. She also works with BACP's Counselling Children and Young People (CCYP) Division as Special Interest Lead and is interested in research developments in this arena.

She brings to her role a range of research and professional experiences that fuel her passion for bridging the gap between research and practice. For example, her PhD research used action research in the development of therapeutic interventions for women with eating disorders, she has worked as a research leader in a leading charity providing experiential personal development programmes, she has developed peer evaluation projects with young people and she has spent over 10 years teaching in Higher Education. She is also a qualified teacher and has many years experience of facilitating personal development programmes in a range of settings.

She is particularly interested in participatory action research and feminist methodologies. She was launching editor of the academic Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning and currently sits on the editorial board of the journal. She also has a wide range of experience in developing outdoor adventure therapy interventions, is a member of the International Adventure Therapy Working Party, and continues to pursue her interest in psycho-spiritual psychotherapy. She has written and edited numerous publications including, ‘Therapy within adventure', ‘Eating disorders and adventure therapy: a feminist approach to research and practice', ‘Self-esteem and youth development' and she is co-author of the recently published BACP systematic review titled ‘The impact of clinical supervision on counsellors and therapists, their practice and their clients (2007).  

Contact: 01455 883332 or kaye.richards@bacp.co.uk

Suky Khele

Research & Public Affairs Officer

Suky Khele is the Research and Public Affairs Officer for BACP. Her main role is to co-ordinate and manage BACP's research policy consultation process, and to ensure that all BACP responses to consultation documents/exercises are timely, consistent, evidence based and of the highest quality. Suky proactively and reactively identifies and monitors public consultation exercises and advises the Head of Research on those of potential impact to BACP and those in which BACP may influence national policy. Suky works with BACP staff, committee members and individual members to ensure that expertise is harnessed in any given field and appropriate authors are identified for consultation work, assuring that responses are officially sanctioned. Suky also identifies, assesses, summarises and disseminates relevant information on research and policy initiatives relating to psychological therapies.

A further aspect of Suky's role involves the dissemination of research information through research department processes and she also undertakes projects. Suky is part of the research helpdesk team responding to research enquiries and also supports the research team in the development of research resources and information. Suky works closely with the Research Officer on the systematic review processes and actively disseminates research information including BACP's systematic reviews and Information Sheets.

Suky brings to her role an understanding of research and psychological therapies through her BSc in Human Psychology and MSc in Work Psychology and Business.

Contact: 01455 883352 or suky.khele@bacp.co.uk

Jack Rogers

Research Officer

Jack Rogers is the latest member to join the Research Department as BACP's Research Officer and his main role includes project management and research administration for the work of the Research Department. This involves accessing and providing accurate, current information for the department, members of BACP and the public and maintaining and updating a research database of relevant resources.

Jack is responsible for the dissemination of research information and the active maintenance of the research department's website, ensuring that it is up to date and of high quality. Jack also develops and manages the research network database and works closely with the Information Services Department on the development of information sheets taking particular responsibility for commissioning and dissemination of the research information sheets.

He undertakes research projects in line with BACP's Research strategy. One of the main areas Jack works on is the series of Systematic Reviews on research which entails liaising with authors on scheduling and reviewing and Jack takes the lead in dissemination of final product. Jack also supports the Research Office Manager and the Events Team in the administration of the annual BACP Research Conference.

Jack's degree in Social Psychology gives him a sound background in research on which to develop his role in the Research Department at BACP.

Contact: 01455 883366 or jack.rogers@bacp.co.uk

Stella Nichols

Office Adminstrator

Stella is the Office Administrator in the Research Department and amongst her varied duties she provides the team with secretarial and admin support and is responsible for organising meetings, travel and accommodation and takes minutes.

Stella works closely with Jack (Research Officer) on maintaining the Research Network and she monitors the enquiries and is currently helping with an audit of the enquiry service. Stella assists with the maintenance and dissemination of the research resource information databases. She also works on the development of the dissertation database and liaises with contributors; Stella assists with the administration and preparation of the Research Conference programme and offers support at events.

Contact: 01455 883372 or stella.nichols@bacp.co.uk