Abstract
The process of becoming a counselling psychologist requires a commitment to academic work, therapeutic practice and self reflection all of which support professional and personal development. This portfolio thus endeavours to present these aspects of my work and development and is represented within three dossiers; academic, therapeutic and research. The Academic Dossier contains three essays. In the first, orientated towards lifespan development, consideration is given as to whether models of sexual minority identity development are able to provide adequate information regarding the challenges faced by gay and lesbian adolescents as they emerge into a dominantly heterosexual world. The second essay considers the virtues of dream analysis as a therapeutic tool within the psychodynamic paradigm in a predominantly positivistic culture. The third piece of work offers critical consideration of the diagnostic categorization of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from a psychodynamic perspective. The Therapeutic Dossier offers a brief description of the clinical placements, associated activities and competencies gained whilst I was a trainee counselling psychologist. Each placement facilitated therapeutic work from different theoretical perspectives namely; Humanistic, Psychodynamic and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (both second and third wave). It also includes my Final Clinical Paper where I consider some of the aspects of my personal and professional development as a trainee. The Research Dossier contains three research projects that I undertook whilst on the course. The first, a Literature Review focuses on the professional project that a developing profession may undergo whilst attempting to legitimize their position in the professional arena. The first piece of research is a discourse analytic endeavour considering how counselling psychologists were positioning the profession within relevant journals. The second report explores how practitioners are positioning themselves in relation to the NICE guidelines and the associated subjective experience. Such interpretative pluralism was achieved through the use of thematic analysis.