Abstract
This comprises a selection of the work submitted as part of the requirements for the Practitioner Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology at the University of Surrey. It is presented in three sections: 1. The Academic Dossier contains three essays drawn from the range of theoretical subjects covered by the course. The first is an examination of the impact of infant attachments and how these can be repaired or altered in later life. The second explores the role of the mother in the construction of the psyche in the psychoanalytic theories of Klein and Winnicott. The third looks at the opportunities and challenges of working therapeutically with first episode psychosis. 2. The Therapeutic Practice Dossier aims to convey the experience I have had working in three different therapeutic models and in a range of NHS placements. It also includes my Final Clinical Paper where I identify some of the personal and professional experiences which have shaped my development as a Counselling Psychologist. 3. The Research Dossier contains the three research projects which I undertook during the course. My Literature Review focuses on the limited work available into the motivations of prospective adoptive parents and attempts to make links between this and some of the broader Attachment literature to suggest ways in which attachment experiences could have an impact on motivations to adopt. My first Research Report explores the way that a group of heterosexual women came to the decision to pursue adoption as their route to parenting and what implications this might have for both adoption policies and therapeutic interventions. The second Research Report uses a narrative approach to identify the way a group of prospective adoptive gay fathers make their decision to adopt and how they negotiate the different identities of being both a gay man and a parent.