This study examines how trainee counsellors experience and make sense of the negative impacts of mandatory personal counselling within professional training programmes.
While mandatory counselling is frequently framed as a fundamental component of ethical practice and reflective development, emerging research and trainee narratives indicate that it may also generate emotional distress, ethical dilemmas, and feelings of coercion or surveillance. This research aims to bring attention to these less-explored experiences and to explore how institutional, professional, and cultural factors within training environments influence how mandatory counselling is perceived and understood.
The study adopts a qualitative research design informed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and autoethnography. IPA is employed to explore in depth how individual trainees interpret and ascribe meaning to their lived experiences of mandatory counselling within the context of professional training. This approach is particularly well suited to the study’s focus on subjective experience, emotional complexity, and personal meaning-making. Autoethnography is incorporated to support reflexivity and to acknowledge the researcher’s insider position as a trainee counsellor who has also undertaken mandatory counselling. Together, these approaches enable a nuanced and critically reflexive understanding of the phenomenon while maintaining methodological rigour.
Data will be collected through semi-structured, one-to-one interviews with approximately two to three trainee counsellors who are currently enrolled in, or have recently completed, a UK-based counselling or psychotherapy training programme that requires mandatory personal counselling.
Participants will be recruited through voluntary participation to minimise potential power imbalances or perceptions of coercion. An invitation email and Participant Information Leaflet will be distributed to prospective participants, outlining the aims of the study, what participation involves, and their ethical rights.
Interviews will last approximately 45–60 minutes and will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams. With informed consent, interviews will be audio-recorded using encrypted digital software and transcribed verbatim by the researcher. A semi-structured interview guide will be used to ensure consistency across interviews while allowing participants flexibility to explore experiences they consider most salient. Interview questions will focus on participants’ perceptions of mandatory counselling, any emotional or ethical challenges encountered, and reflections on how this requirement has influenced their learning, professional identity, and relationship with the training institution.
In addition to interview data, the researcher will maintain a reflexive journal throughout the research process and develop a small number of autoethnographic vignettes based on personal experience. These materials will be used to support reflexive engagement and contextual interpretation rather than to substitute participant data.
Data analysis will follow the established six-stage IPA process, including close reading, initial noting, development of emergent themes, and cross-case analysis. Autoethnographic materials will be analysed using reflexive thematic interpretation and integrated at the interpretive stage. All data will be anonymised and stored securely in accordance with GDPR and university ethical guidelines.
To take part or for more information, please see here.
To view the participant information sheet, please see here.
