Congratulations to Jasmine Clarke-Skillicorn for her research, ‘An Exploration of Recently Qualified Counsellor Experiences of Preparedness for Working with LGBTQ+ Clients in the South West of England’.
Jasmine graduated from University Centre Weston with a Bachelor’s degree in Counselling, and is currently completing postgraduate studies in Psychology with the University of Liverpool. She works as a mental health practitioner for a digital mental health service supporting children and young people, alongside running a small private counselling practice.
Jasmine’s research explores how recently qualified counsellors experience preparedness for working with LGBTQ+ clients, examining both how preparedness is understood and the factors that shape it in practice.
The findings highlight gaps in training, alongside wider influences such as identity, personal experience, and ongoing professional development, offering implications for more inclusive counselling training and practice.
The study is grounded in a commitment to social justice and advocacy for LGBTQ+ communities in the context of ongoing discrimination and inequality, and is shaped by the researcher’s own identity and experiences as an LGBTQ+ person. It challenges the idea that good intentions alone are sufficient, emphasising the need for cultural humility, reflection and meaningful change.
Many congratulations to Jasmine from all at BACP.
Highly commended 2026
Congratulations to Kitty Stephenson for receiving the judging panel’s award of Highly Commended for her paper ‘Exploring Individuals’ Experiences of Nature During Bereavement: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study’.
Kitty says: "I've been drawn for many years to the connection between nature and wellbeing through my own experiences of grief and mental health, and inspired by clients who entrusted me with their bereavement stories, I wanted to explore how people experience nature as they navigate grief. Rather than assuming nature is simply 'helpful', I was interested in the lived detail and meaning of this relationship during bereavement, listening to individual stories to understand how grief is expressed and held.
The findings suggested that nature offered participants accepting, non-judgemental and emotionally containing spaces that allowed grief to be felt and expressed - qualities strikingly similar to those we aim to cultivate in the counselling room, perhaps reflecting something fundamental about our relationship with, and belonging within, the natural world.
Alongside this research, I'm training as a forest bathing guide and hope to offer walk-and-talk therapy, continuing to explore how working with and in nature can support people through grief and other difficult experiences."
Jasmine Clarke-Skillicorn
Kitty Stephenson
