Counselling training in higher education in the United Kingdom: Challenges and opportunities for research

Joseph, Stephen; Murphy, David; Holford, John

Abstract

© 2018 British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Many Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the United Kingdom (UK) now offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses in counselling. However, counselling is a relatively new and developing profession only beginning to nurture a future generation of research-active scholars. As such, its development is vulnerable to pressures arising from HEIs preparations for the forthcoming UK Research Excellence Framework (REF). We discuss how counselling is best understood as representing two distinct traditions premised on either a pedagogical or a mental illness discourse. This has implications for how counselling research is situated within HEIs, an understanding of which may help counselling education survive the challenges ahead and find new opportunities to develop and grow. Within HEI's, there is a need to be aware of the different ways of conceptualising the activities of counselling. An opportunity exists to reimagine counselling both as a mental health and as a pedagogical profession.

Citation

Joseph, S., Murphy, D., & Holford, J. (2018). Counselling training in higher education in the United Kingdom: Challenges and opportunities for research. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 18(4), 387-394. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12189

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 10, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Sep 19, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 22, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 20, 2020
• Journal: Counselling and Psychotherapy Research
• Print ISSN: 1473-3145
• Electronic ISSN: 1746-1405
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 387-394
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12189
• Keywords: Counselling; Higher education; Mental health; Pedagogical; Person-centred; Research excellence framework
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1179657
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/capr.12189
• Additional Information: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Joseph S, Murphy D, Holford J. Counselling training in higher education in the United Kingdom: Challenges and opportunities for research. Couns Psychother Res. 2018;18:387–394., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12189. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.