Domestic violence (DV) affects around 20% of the population globally and is linked with complex mental health conditions and difficulties in client therapeutic engagement. Developing therapeutic competency to meet the standards for independent, professional practice is a significant part of counsellor training. A competency framework for DV is a…

How same-sex couples manage the process of seeking help for their relationships is an under-researched area. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 people who had engaged in same-sex couple counselling, and were analysed using discourse analysis. The ways in which the couples positioned themselves as part of a "minority…

Ten counselors were interviewed concerning their fears encountered in their therapeutic work. Participants were also asked what they had found to be helpful when attempting to deal with these fears. Fears reported are categorized into fears of losing control, fears of being separated from a group by way of disapproval or rejection, and fears of…

Despite its widely acknowledged importance to effective therapeutic practice across theoretical orientations, it has been suggested that counsellor "personal development" remains a poorly defined area of training, and that the concept is itself endowed with numerous implicit meanings. In an attempt to move towards a more explicit and…