Abstract
This portfolio contains work submitted for the practitioner doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology. It is the culmination of a three year training programme in counselling psychology, and contains a selection of academic, therapeutic and research papers written in training. Within the academic dossier, three essays written across the training process are presented. The first essay explores the usefulness of Galinsky’s developmental six stage model of parenthood as a resource for counselling. The second essay examines issues of diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and therapeutic work with borderline personality disorder. The third essay investigates the issue of race and power dynamics in psychodynamic relationships. Within the therapeutic dossier, a description of my clinical placement experiences is presented, along with a final clinical paper which highlights the imagery and creative aspects of my development as a counselling psychologist. Two examples of clinical work are included as an attachment to this portfolio. The first in-depth process reports embedded within a client study is a humanistic exploration with a woman’s search for a sense of self-worth. The second process reports embedded within a client study is a psychodynamic exploration of a woman’s search for answers and for permission to make mistakes. Three pieces of research are presented in the research dossier. A literature review focuses on discipline and attachment in relation to the debates around the phenomenon of smacking. There is also a qualitative thematic analysis of TV therapists’ views on discipline choices available to parents. And finally, there is a qualitative study of maternal views of discipline and relationships, using an interpretative phenomenological analytical approach.