For 24 years, the BACP Research Conference has been a place where researchers and practitioners come together to exchange ideas on important research findings, presented in open discussion with constructive critical debate and helpful dialogue. The conference fosters a climate where all are welcome to share in both the learning and social experience.
Over this time the conference has been attended by representatives - both presenters and delegates - from 23 countries, making it a truly international event.
Shaping counselling practice and policy: the next 25 years
This year we're delighted to be in Belfast, with co-hosts Ulster University and Queens University Belfast. The conference will explore the influence and impact of research on policy and the services being commissioned.
Along with keynote presentations on trauma and outcome measures, there'll be discussion panels on policy, plus papers, workshops and symposia on children, young people and families, university and college counselling, workplace counselling and social media.
Download the Research Conference draft programme (pdf)
Find out more and book your place
Keynote speakers
Kim de Jong, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at Leiden University
Using routine outcome monitoring as a feedback intervention to enhance outcomes in routine practice
Kim de Jong studied Psychology at the University of Amsterdam and received a double master degree with honors (‘met genoegen’) in Clinical Psychology and in Psychological Methods in 2000.
After graduation, she worked as an applied researcher in a mental health organisation (GGZ Noord-Holland-Noord) for 12 years, where she performed studies in a wide variety of patients and settings. In October 2009, she became a part-time researcher at the department of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Erasmus University Medical Center.
In 2012 Kim obtained her doctoral degree from Leiden University, as an external candidate. As part of her dissertation research, she visited Professor Michael J Lambert at Brigham Young University in 2008 for five months. In 2013 she was awarded with an NWO Rubicon grant to work with Professor Robert J DeRubeis at the University of Pennsylvania for a year.
She currently works as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at Leiden University. She is a board member of the Dutch Association for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (VGCt). In 2018 she was awarded the Society for Psychotherapy Research Outstanding Early Career Achievement Award.
Ciaran Mulholland, Consultant Psychiatrist with the Northern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Regional Trauma Network: Treating the aftermath of psychological trauma with evidence-based therapies
Ciaran Mulholland is a consultant psychiatrist with the Northern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland, a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Medical Education at Queen’s University Belfast and Visiting Professor to the Bamford Centre for Mental Health at the University of Ulster.
He is clinical co-lead for an innovative service for young people with 'at risk mental states' and Clinical Director of the recently established Northern Ireland Regional Trauma Network for the treatment of conditions occurring as a consequence of trauma, including trauma arising from the 'Troubles'. The Network will work across the voluntary, community and statutory health sector to improve the delivery of services including a wide range of psychological therapies.
