How do counsellors with a personal faith experience navigating congruence when working with clients’ spirituality and religious beliefs, where these differ from the counsellor’s own?

I am a trainee counsellor studying for my MA Professional Counselling at Waverley Abbey College. I am currently recruiting counsellors to participate in online video research interviews to answer the question, ‘How do counsellors with a personal faith experience navigating congruence when working with clients’ spirituality and religious beliefs, where these beliefs differ from the counsellor’s own?’

What's this research about?

Although research increasingly highlights the importance of sensitivity to clients’ socio-cultural and faith contexts and reflexivity about the impact of the therapist’s own Worldview upon their practice, little is written about how counsellors embody these principles in practice.

This study aims to address this gap in knowledge, by exploring the lived experience of counsellors who have worked with clients’ spirituality in their therapeutic practice, especially when their own personal faith appears to conflict with the spiritual worldview of their client.

Am I eligible to participate?

To be eligible to participate, you must:

• Be a qualified counsellor (trained at least to Diploma level) with a minimum of 1 year of clinical experience.

• Profess a personal faith.

• Have experience of working with adult clients’ spiritual material, whilst being aware of a difference in spiritual worldview between yourself and your client.

• Be registered or accredited to practice therapy with a relevant professional body (BACP, ACC or UKCP, or equivalent).

What do I have to do?

Participation will involve taking part in an online interview with me that will last between 45 minutes and 1 hour. This can be scheduled at a time that is mutually convenient to both the researcher and participant. The interview will be audio recorded and later transcribed to allow for in-depth analysis by myself.

This study has received ethical approval from the Waverley Abbey College Research Ethics Committee.

For more information or to register your interest in participating, please email me at: heidi.horn@waverleyabbeycollege.org.uk

Please see here to view the participant information sheet.