Project: Free Labour and precarity in mental health provision: trainee counsellor’s experiences across the UK.
Researchers: We are Dr Mariya Ivancheva, Strathclyde University and Dr Jennifer O’Neil, Edinburgh Napier University. We are Education, Work and Employment researchers. Mariya has a counselling background and Jennifer has researched/published on counselling practitioners working experiences previously.
Participants: We are interested in interviewing trainee counsellors on accredited postgraduate programmes. You will have the opportunity to discuss your experiences of training, placement and transition to employment and professional career in the UK context. Your views are important in informing this research and shaping future practice.
Research: This project, sponsored by BACP, investigates the structural conditions of counselling placements in the UK through the lived experiences of trainee counsellors and insight into the trainee programmes rationale and structure. We aim to inform future training and placement design in a way that captures trainee counsellors’ voices and illuminates the structural challenges they experience within a dynamically developing professional field.
Data: All data will be anonymised and saved following GDPR protocols. The findings from the interviews will be published as a policy brief, presented at conferences and in journal articles. They will serve as key documents in a knowledge exchange programme with diverse stakeholders to help formulate policy demands for improved funding and placement design in the sector.
Information: Please contact us at J.Oneil@napier.ac.uk and M.Ivancheva@strath.ac.uk if you would like to take part and/or have any further questions.
Ethics: This project has full ethical approval from the University of Strathclyde. For more information, please contact ethics@strathclyde.ac.uk