Abstract
This portfolio was submitted to The University of Surrey for the completion of the Practitioner Doctorate (PsychD) in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology. It is comprised of three dossiers which reflect the academic, clinical and research work undertaken as part of this degree. The academic dossier consists of three essays. The first essay explores the use of symbols in drawings made by children during psychodynamic play therapy by introducing Freudian, Kleinian and Winnicottian perspectives. The second essay explores how various strands within CBT conceptualise and work with low self-esteem in clinical populations. The third and final essay critically evaluates 'sexual sadomasochism' as a diagnostic entity by investigating what exactly is claimed to be the problem with this type of sexuality. The therapeutic practice dossier provides a description of my clinical placements over the three years of training. Within this dossier is also a 'final clinical paper' which gives an explicit account of my professional and personal development towards becoming a counselling psychologist. The final dossier introduces three pieces of research which all explore children's spirituality and its relevance to therapeutic practice. The first of these is a literature review which critically considers the various epistemological underpinnings and assumptions underlying the existing literature on 'children's spiritual development'. In the second research paper the role of spirituality in therapy with children is explored by asking child therapists how they conceptualise and work with spirituality in their clinical practice. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight practitioners and the data subjected to thematic analysis. The final research paper explores the role of 'trusted adults' in the spiritual lives of children by interviewing nine children using a grounded theory approach. The research dossier concludes with a copy of a conference presentation delivered at the World Congress of Play Therapy in Marrakech, 2010.