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What is the purpose of the study?
The study aims to explore trainee counselling psychologists lived experiences from a phenomenological approach; the researcher is aiming to understand the personal interpretation trainees give to their therapeutic work with anorexic, bulimic and binge-eating clients. The researcher is hoping to highlight the need for more specialised training in working with such client groups, especially in terms of the ‘Reflective Practitioner’.
What are the criteria I must meet to be eligible to participate?
You must have worked clinically with clients experiencing eating disorders for at least three months, to ensure that you have had sufficient experience of working therapeutically, one-to-one, with these clients. You must also be engaged in personal therapy and have regular clinical supervision; this is to ensure you have sufficient support both personally and professionally should you feel distressed by anything you discuss in this study. The only exclusion criterion will be whether you have had or been diagnosed with an eating disorder yourself.
What are the benefits?
In participating in the study you will have the opportunity to discuss your experiences of working with eating disorder clients and the impact you feel this has on you personally and professionally. Talking about this might be helpful to you. You will also be helping to enhance the current literature of how working with such clients can affect a therapist; the better understanding there is of how such work impacts on trainees the researcher anticipates improvements to training programmes.
What about confidentiality?
What you discuss during the study will be treated with the utmost confidentiality; transcripts will be anonymised by allocating a special research code. Any identifying material (such as placement name, client name, manager name etc.) will be altered to a pseudonym. The researcher will keep the transcribed interviews on a disk, alongside your signed consent form, in a securely locked filing cabinet. The researcher will want to share content of the interviews with a supervisor and possibly use excerpts from interviews in the study. Again all identifying information will be removed. What if I am distressed during the interview, or feel upset afterwards?The researcher anticipates that some of the questions about your experiences might evoke upsetting or distressing feelings. If you become distressed during the interview you can ask the researcher to stop recording. Once the interview has been completed you will be given up to half and hour to discuss any concerns raised. The researcher wants you to feel safe in discussing your feelings, hence you need to be engaged in personal therapy and have access to a clinical supervisor. Having these sources of support will enable you to discuss any personal concerns after the study has been completed. The researcher will also provide you with a debriefing sheet which contains various self-help resources of support.
What if I wish to withdraw from the study?
You are entitled to withdraw from the study up until the point of actually starting the interview recording. Once you have consented to the recording of the interview, unless due to extreme circumstances, you will be unable to withdraw from the research study. Any concerns you have can be discussed up to this point, enabling you to decide whether you wish to continue participating in the study.
Who will review the study?
The study has been subject to review by the Universities Ethics Committee, and granted ethical clearance. The research project will be reviewed regularly by one research supervisor. If the study is to be published, you will be contacted to ask for your consent to include any aspects from your interview in the research paper.
Contact details:
You can contact me via email on:Email: Liz_Adams20@yahoo.co.uk
Alternatively, you can contact the researcher supervisor via email on:
e.kasket@londonmet.ac.uk
