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Research

Counselling and Therapy Research Group

This research group brings together the interests of researchers from a range of counselling and therapeutic mental health practices.

The Counselling and Therapy Research Group aims to be the home for the exploration of mental health related research around the broad themes of counsellor practice, identity, social justice and criticality.

Group members have the opportunity to carry out a range of practitioner-based studies within the York St John Communities Centre.

Ongoing and previous research by our members include studies of online counselling, counselling supervision, anger management, trauma, asylum seekers, critical research around the medical model of mental healthcare and narratives on coaching.

Get in touch

We always welcome new members or PhD applicants to the group who may share our interest in mental health related research.

Research activity

Publications from Professor Lynne Gabriel

Books: Sole author and co-edited

  • 2005: Gabriel, L., Speaking the Unspeakable: The ethics of dual relationships in counselling and psychotherapy: 224pp. London: Brunner-Routledge.
  • 2009: Gabriel, L. & Casemore, R. Relational Ethics in Practice: Narratives from Counselling and Psychotherapy. London: Brunner-Routledge.

Books and edited series in progress

  • Commissioned by Routledge to deliver an Ethics in Action edited series for the counselling and mental health professions. Professor Andrew Reeves is co-editor of the series, plus a series author.
  • Co-author of Pluralistic Counselling for Bereavement – proposal submitted to PCCS books.
  • Routledge have requested a co-authored book on bereavement. The book will be co-authored with Cruse and Dr John Wilson, Research Fellow at York St John Communities Centre.

Parts of books

  • 2000: Gabriel, L. & Davies, D. The Management of Ethical Dilemmas Associated with Dual Relationships. In Neal, C. & Davies, D., (Eds.) Issues in therapy with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered clients. Pp 35-54 Buckingham: Open University Press.
  • 2006: Dunnett, A., Gabriel, L., Hobman, T., Lacock, L., Pendle, A., Roberts, E., Smith, L. Storr, P., Warren, C. Developments and Applications of the Skilled Helper Model: A Roundtable of Views. In Wosket, V. Egan's Skilled Helper Model: Developments and Applications in Counselling. Chapter 7. London: Brunner-Routledge.
  • 2009: Gabriel, L. Relational ethics, boundary riders and process sentinels: allies for ethical practice. In Gabriel, L., & Casemore, R., (Eds). Relational Ethics in Practice: Narratives from Counselling and Psychotherapy. Pp 9-22. London: Brunner-Routledge.
  • 2009: Gabriel, L. Exploring the researcher-contributor research alliance. In Gabriel, L., & Casemore, R., (Eds). Relational Ethics in Practice: Narratives from Counselling and Psychotherapy. Pp 147-157. London: Brunner-Rutledge.
  • 2015: Gabriel, L. Ethics in Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy. In Cooper, M. & Dryden, W., (Eds). The Handbook of Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy. Pp 300-313. London: Sage. (December 2015).
  • 2022: Gabriel, L. Social justice informed therapy and gender. In Winter. L & Charura, D. The SAGE Handbook of Social Justice in the Psychological Therapies. (in publication)
  • 2022: Gabriel, L. & Wilson, J. Working with bereavement in the pandemic. In Liz Rothschild 2nd Edition of Outside the Box: Everyday stories of death, bereavement and life. PCCS books (in publication)

Peer reviewed papers

  • 2006: Gabriel, L. Creating Quality Research. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. 6 (2) 146-147. (DO: 10.1080/14733140600725567).(1473-3145 (print)/1746-1405 (online) – 2006 British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy).
  • 2008: Gabriel, L. Relational ethics, boundary riders and process sentinels: Allies for ethical practice. Online article with ACA Vistas. Based on a program presented at the ACA Annual Conference & Exhibition, Honolulu, HI.
  • 2014: Wilson, J., Gabriel, L., & James, H. Observing a Client’s Grieving Process: Bringing Logical Positivism into Qualitative Grief Counselling Research. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling. (DOI: 10.1080/03069885.2014.936823)
  • 2015: Wilson, J., Gabriel, L., & James, H. How bereaved people cope with minimal professional support. Five case studies are compared. Bereavement Care.
  • 2016: Seamark, D., & Gabriel, L. Barriers to Support: A Qualitative Exploration into the Help-seeking and Avoidance Factors of Young Adults. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling.
  • 2016: Wilsons, J., Gabriel, L., & James, H. Making sense of loss and grief: the value of in-depth assessments. Bereavement Care. 35 (2) 67-77.
  • 2017: Saxon, D., Ashley, K., Bishop-Edwards, L., Connell, J. Harrison, P., Ohlsen, S., Hardy, G.E., Kellett, S., Mukuria, C., Mank, T., Bower, P., Bradburn, M., Brazier, J., Elliott, R., Gabriel, L., King, M., Pilling, S., Shaw, S., Waller, G., Barkham, M. A pragmatic randomized controlled trial assessing the non-inferiority of counselling for depression versus cognitive-behaviour therapy for patients in primary care meeting a diagnosis of moderate or severe depression (PRaCTICED): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials.
  • 2017: Gabriel, L., Tizro, Z., James, H., Cronin-Davies, J., Beetham, T., Corbally, A., Moreno-Lopez, E., & Hill, S. "Give me some space": Young person to parent aggression and violence. Journal of Family Violence.
  • 2017: Gabriel, L., Tizro, Z., James, H., Cronin-Davis, J., & Beetham, T. Creative conversations: creating research dialogues with mothers and their children. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research.
  • 2018: Wright, C., & Gabriel, L. Perspectives of Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: An Exploration of the Adjustments to Self-Structure through Meaning-Making in Therapy. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse.
  • 2019: Beetham, T., Gabriel, L., & James,H. Young children’s narrations of relational recovery: A school-based group for children who have experienced domestic violence. Journal of Family Violence.
  • 2019: Roddy, J., & Gabriel, L. A competency framework for domestic abuse counselling practice. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling.
  • 2020: George, F.K., Benham, A., Gabriel, L. & Purton, J. Development and Content Validity of the Clinical Assessment of Body Alignment for Children With Cerebral Palsy. Pediatric Physical Therapy.
  • 2020: Thompson, Jonathan, Gabriel, Lynne , Yoward, L S and Dawson, Pam. The Advanced Practitioners’ Perspective. Exploring the Decision-Making Process Between Musculoskeletal Advanced Practitioners and their Patients: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study. Musculoskeletal Care.
  • 2021: Baker, C., & Gabriel, L. (2021) Exploring how therapists' self-care in times of personal distress. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling. (DOI: 10.1080/03069885.2021.1885010). In press Feb 2021.
  • 2021: Barkham, M., Saxon, D., Hardy, G.E., Bradburn, M., Galloway, D., Wickramasekera, N., Keetharuth, A.D., Bower, P., King, M., Elliott, R. and Gabriel, L., 2021. Person-centred experiential therapy versus cognitive behavioural therapy delivered in the English Improving Access to Psychological Therapies service for the treatment of moderate or severe depression (PRaCTICED): a pragmatic, randomised, non-inferiority trial. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(6), pp.487-499.
  • 2021: Smith, Kate, Mcleod, John, Blunden, Nicola, Cooper, Mick, Gabriel, Lynne Kupfer, Christine, Mcleod, Julia, Murphie, Marie-Clare, Oddli, Hanne Weie and Winter, Laura Anne. A Pluralistic Perspective on Research in Psychotherapy: Harnessing Passion, Difference and Dialogue to Promote Justice and Relevance. Frontiers in Psychology.
  • 2021: Smith, Kate, Moller, Naomi, Cooper, Mick, Gabriel, Lynne , Roddy, Jeannette and Sheehy, Robert. Video Counselling and Psychotherapy: A Critical Commentary on the Evidence Base. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research.
  • 2022: Newman, E. & Gabriel, L. Investigating clients' experiences of walk and talk therapy. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research.

Publications from other group members

  • Bates, A., Hobman, T. and Bell, B.T., 2020. "Let me do what I please with it... Don’t decide my identity for me": LGBTQ+ youth experiences of social media in narrative identity development. Journal of Adolescent Research, 35(1), pp.51-83.
  • Pendle, A. (1990) Beyond Artifice. Theatre Ireland. ( 23) pp. 26-29.
  • Pendle, A. (writing as "Andy Baloney") (1992) Hitting the bottle. Theatre Ireland (26/27) pp. 72-75.
  • Pendle, A; Rowe, N. (2010) Beyond dramatic truth: theatre within the therapeutic encounter. Research in drama education: the journal of applied theatre and performance 15 (1) pp. 89-102.
  • Pendle, A. (2015) Pluralistic coaching? An exploration of the potential for a pluralistic approach to coaching. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, Special Issue (9), pp.1-13.
  • Pendle, A., Rowe, N. and Britten, D. (2017) Coaching in a non-clinical setting with coachees who access mental health services. International Journal of Evidence-Based Coaching and Mentoring, 15 (1), pp.78-93.
  • Pendle, A. (2022) Narrative coaching: a coherence theory of truth. In Garvey, B.; Stokes, P. Coaching and mentoring: theory and practice (4th edn). London, Sage, pp 34-35.
  • Saxon, D., Ashley, K., Bishop-Edwards, L., Connell, J., Harrison, P., Ohlsen, S., Hardy, G.E., Kellett, S., Mukuria, C., Mank, T. and Bower, P., 2017. A pragmatic randomised controlled trial assessing the non-inferiority of counselling for depression versus cognitive-behaviour therapy for patients in primary care meeting a diagnosis of moderate or severe depression (PRaCTICED): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials, 18(1), pp.1-14.
  • Shepherd, Gary ,Astbury, Ellie, Cooper, Amanda, Dobrzynska, Wiktoria, Murphy, Holly and Whitley, Annie (2022) The challenges facing men when seeking counselling or psychotherapy: A scoping review. Journal of Mental Health. (In Press)
  • Shepherd, Gary (2020) 'Normally I'd get really agitated, but I just laughed!': What do participants reflect upon on a Transactional Analysis/Mindfulness based anger management programme? British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 48 (4). pp. 537-551.
  • Shepherd, Gary (2019) An anger management programme as an action learning set. Action Learning: Research and Practice, 16 (3). pp. 256-265.
  • Shepherd, Gary and Cant, Matthew (2020) Difficult to change? The differences between successful and not-so-successful participation on anger management groups. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 20 (2). pp. 214-223.
  • Shepherd, Gary (2019) Do therapists ever get lonely? In: Alone Together Symposium, 10 to 12 April 2019, York St John University.
  • Shepherd, Gary (2017) 'From where I'm looking it just seems like two people have missed the boat…': Understanding set behaviour from a socioanalytic perspective. Educational Action Research, 26 (5). pp. 682-696.
  • Shepherd, Gary (2016) Developing Deep Group Reflection within a Critical Reflection Action Learning (CRAL) Set. Action Learning : Research and Practice, 13 (3). pp. 252-262.
  • Shepherd, Gary (2016) How a small family run business adopted Critical Reflection Action Learning using hand drawn images to initiate organisational change. Action Learning: Research and Practice, 13 (1). pp. 69-78.
  • Smith, P., Simpson, L. and Madill, A., 2021. Service user experiences of a novel in-reach rehabilitation and recovery service for people with profound and enduring mental health needs. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 30(5), pp.1106-1116.

Group members

Gary Shepherd

Dr Gary Shepherd

Group leader, Senior Lecturer

Staff photo of Trish Hobman

Dr Trish Hobman

Associate Head: Children, Young People, Education and Counselling

Lynne Gabriel

Professor Lynne Gabriel

Professor of Counselling and Mental Health, REF Impact Case Study Lead

Dr Penn Smith

Programme Lead: BA Counselling, Coaching and Mentoring/BA Counselling and Mental Health, Course Lead: PG Dip in Humanistic Counselling

Profile image of Andy Pendle

Andy Pendle

Senior Lecturer

Staff profile image of Lynne Lacock

Lynne Lacock

Senior Lecturer, Programme Lead for Postgraduate Counselling

Sue Jewitt

Lecturer

Jenny Collyer

Lecturer

Limor Augustin

PhD student

Samantha Goddard

PhD student