The counselling psychologist researcher

Abstract

Content and Focus Many doctoral trainees struggle with what it is to be a counselling psychologist researcher. This paper, based upon observations compiled over six years of training, supervision, and examination of counselling psychology doctoral candidates, identifies four common phenomena. First, many aspirant and actual trainees do not realise what ‘professional doctorate’ really means in practice. Second, researchers often do not consider how the values of counselling psychology may translate into a research context. Third, trainee counselling psychologist researchers repeatedly make the same mistakes, to the detriment of doctoral success. Fourth, trainees frequently neglect to disseminate their research. To address these issues, this paper defines professional doctorates and distinguishes them from the traditional PhD; describes the author’s view of how counselling psychology values may be put into action in the research context; identifies and suggests remedies for the ‘seven deadly sins’ of counselling psychology doctoral research; and highlights the importance of and various routes for dissemination.