Abstract
The Portfolio comprises a collection of essays and reports written during the three years of training on the Practitioner Doctorate Course in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology at the University of Surrey. It consists of three separate dossiers, pertaining to my academic study, therapeutic practice, and research, each containing a sample of my work, selected to reflect my interests and demonstrate the skills and competencies I have acquired during my training. In the Academic Dossier I present three essays, written in consecutive years, each examining a particular aspect of the model in which I was working at the time: the first explores the humanistic concept of ‘unconditional positive regard’; the second investigates the concept of ‘containment’ from a psychodynamic perspective; and the third looks at the role of the therapeutic relationship in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a third-wave cognitive behavioural therapy. The Therapeutic Practice Dossier highlights my clinical experience during the course, providing a brief description of my three clinical placements. In addition, it includes my Final Clinical Paper, which is a reflective account of my personal and professional development over the course of my training. Finally, the Research Dossier presents three pieces of research, each using a different methodology, exploring our experience of the natural environment. The first report is a literature review, examining the evidence for the claim that all human beings have an innate affiliation with nature; the second study adopts a grounded theory methodology and focuses specifically on the experiences of adolescents in natural environments; and the third employs an experimental approach to further investigate the restorative effects of natural environments amongst teenagers.