The consumer and counselling research

A report from the 12th Annual BACP Research Conference, May 2006, held in association with the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

In her welcome address, BACP Chair, Nicola Barden, commented that these are interesting times for the psychological therapies as we see global growth, the Government increasing access to talking therapies and the general public becoming more aware and approving of counselling and psychotherapy. She pointed out that in view of these changes we need to ask whether what we offer is good enough, and who we should be offering it to. It is a good time to think about the consumer and research – it is the centre of our work. Professor Mick Cooper – co-host from the University of Strathclyde – also asked who our research is for and who we want to consume it. He noted that we might need to redirect counselling research to others who might use it, such as clients.

In an opening address, Professor John McLeod, from the University of Abertay, refocused the debate on outcome research in counselling and psychotherapy. As well as noting that people in research are not passive consumers, he also asked whether outcome research actually leads to improved services. He explored what lies behind the problem of outcome research, pointing out that the dominant paradigm most outcome research hinges on is based on the drug metaphor, whereby the client is a passive recipient of a treatment. This then leaves very little space for the client to be seen as an agent of change. In contrast, he discussed how an alternative outcome paradigm views the client as active, and has central to its debate the question of how the client makes therapy work. This encourages wider outcome questions, for example what do users of therapy say about different care pathways? And how do people actively use their therapy at different times? John McLeod argued in conclusion for a richer understanding of the meaning of 'outcome', thus enabling a new conversation about outcome research with a wider range of stakeholders, clients, users, and practitioners.

Professor Paul Salkovskis, Institute of Psychiatry and the Centre for Anxiety and Trauma at the Maudsley Hospital, in his keynote titled 'Giving people what they want: empirically grounded psychological therapy', highlighted the increasing role the public will play in deciding how services are deployed, and which types of therapy continue to be offered. Evidence-based approaches have helped clarify choice for both potential clients and practitioners in the face of what he described as a bewildering range of therapies.

Paul Salkovskis illustrated these principles in the context of the successful application of cognitive approaches to understand and treat anxiety disorders, highlighting the importance of using research findings and clinical examples in understanding treatment and training therapists. Professor Salkovskis concluded by issuing a challenge to therapists stating that the evidence base is poor for many therapies and that a profession which prides itself on helping people to change should be able to identify its own need for change and react accordingly.

Professor Liz Bondi, University of Edinburgh, in her keynote titled 'Filling gaps or feeling gaps? Dilemmas for counselling researchers in an age of consumption', provided a critical examination of the dilemmas of counselling research in today's society. She highlighted how researchers identify and fill what are defined as gaps of knowledge, and how our identities as consumers become pivotal as the notion of consumption is unavoidable in today's society: Liz Bondi went on to discuss the implications of a consuming society for the practices of counselling and psychotherapy. She covered the following themes: the commodification of interpersonal interactions, the rise of emotional labour, self-narration and self-authorship, the empty self and expansive subjective interiors. The chief message of her keynote was that counselling does express, propagate and mitigate effects of consumerism and thus as both counsellors and counselling researchers we need to be alert to the illusions of consumer societies and consumer wants and personal needs.

Professor John McLeod and Professor Mick Cooper also provided an update on the establishment of the Abertay Research Centre in Counselling and Psychotherapy. The Centre is a co-ordinated collaborative interplay between researchers generating a capacity to collect rich data through a research relationship with clients, and generating new knowledge of outcomes based on clients' views.

John McLeod described the process and realities of establishing the research clinic. This included finding money, building a collaborative group, creating a model for sustainability, writing protocols, ensuring user involvement, liaising with external agencies, creating appropriate facilities, and developing a research strategy. He also described the range of quantitative and qualitative research methods being used at the clinic. Mick Cooper then described a pluralistic model of therapy that underpins the work at the research clinic. He pointed out that therapy is not one thing, it involves multiple processes and thus requires an inclusive framework that can incorporate a range of change processes.

Along with the keynotes, a wide range of papers, workshops and posters at the conference addressed different consumer agendas, along with methodological perspectives of the processes and discussion of the outcomes of counselling and psychotherapy research. Whether it is the client, the employer, the NHS, education establishments, or even the counsellor, it seems that a complex interplay exists at the interface of research and practice. However, even with its complexity, Nicola Barden pointed out that 'research is a real gift: it offers wonderful possibilities to construct questions of the other, be open to answers and relate to the evidence – either supporting or rebuffing this'. In conclusion, as we try to do 'good research' we need to engage with all the realities in which our lives are situated – so 'the consumer and counselling research' is a debate that will stay with us for years to come.

The Research Department sincerely thanks all the presenters for their efforts and commitment to ensuring a lively and friendly conference, the peer reviewers who set a high standard for contributions, the chairs of the conference sessions, our co-host the University of Strathclyde (in particular Professor Mick Cooper and Lorna Carrick), BACP's IT team and, of course, the BACP events team.