The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions stopped many practitioners offering face to face counselling to their clients.

To explore the effect this has had, we’re undertaking a new research project examining counsellors’ experiences of offering online counselling. 

The study, conducted in partnership with the Open University, is looking for counsellors who have been offering online counselling since the pandemic began.

Understanding our members

Dr Clare Symons, our Head of Research, said: “This new project is part of our efforts to understand the experience of our members during the current crisis.

“We want to understand more about your experiences and perceptions of offering online counselling so we can better understand your training needs.

“We also think it’s important to engage in research in this area so that your experience can inform understanding about what effective and ethical online counselling looks like.

“We want to understand more about the perceived opportunities and challenges of working in this way.

“We’re also hoping to learn something about how your experience of the pandemic impacts on your work with clients.”

Experiences

Study researcher Dr Naomi Moller added: “We are interested in the experiences of counsellors new to online counselling as well as those who were already seeing clients online.”

Members wishing to take part will be directed to an online survey where you’ll be asked to respond to seven open-ended questions about your experiences and perceptions of online counselling.

So we can understand something about who has taken part, you’ll also be asked some demographic questions about your professional practice - for example, the years you’ve worked as a counsellor.

Read the full details of the study, including the Open University ethical approval.