A portfolio of academic, therapeutic practice and research work, including an investigation of the effects of therapists' attachment dimensions on the working alliance

• Main Author: Parpottas, Panagiotis
• Published: University of Surrey 2011
• Subjects: 155
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.540977

This portfolio contains my academic, therapeutic practice and research work. It consists of three dossiers which reflect my personal and professional development as a counselling psychologist. The academic dossier contains three selected theoretical essays. The first essay discusses the patient's transference in light of attachment theory, looking at the differences when compared to the purely libidinal psychoanalyticv iew of transference.T he seconde ssaym akes a critique on the use of standard psychopathological classifications in understanding human distress and discussesth e example of the so-calledS chizoid Personality Disorder. Implications for counselling psychology practice are also discussed in this essay. The third essay critically reviews the literature on how the therapeutic relationship is perceived in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Additionally, this essay discusses how counselling psychologists who work with CBT can understand and utilise the therapeutic relationship as an "intervention" in their therapeutic practice, from an attachment theory perspective. The therapeutic practice dossier contains a description of my three different clinical placements during my training as a counselling psychologist and it also includes my final clinical paper which offers a reflective account of my personal-professional experience and development Finally, the research dossier contains three pieces of work, a review of the literature and two empirical research studies. The first piece of work, reviews the existing literature on the effects of therapists' attachment organisation on the process and outcome of therapy. The second piece of work is a quantitative study that examines the role of therapeutic caregiving in the relationship between therapists' attachment dimensions and the working alliance. Finally, the last study explores the attachment-caregiving therapeutic relationship by investigating whether clients' attachment dimensions moderate, and therapists' caregiving, mediate, the effects of therapists' attachment dimensions on the working alliance.