A Portfolio of Academic, Therapeutic Practice and Research Work Including an Investigation Entitled: A Process of Counteracting Forces: A Grounded Theory Investigation of Group Therapy with Older Adults.

This portfolio comprises of three dossiers, academic, therapeutic and research which have been compiled in partial fulfilment of the Practitioner Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology. The academic dossier contains three essays. The first discusses the factors that affect the therapeutic relationship when working with older adults. The second explores psychodynamic conceptualisations of the effect aggressive fathers can have on the development of their daughters. The third presents a conceptualisation of vomit phobia from a cognitive behavioural perspective. The therapeutic dossier contains details of the placements undertaken as part of the doctoral training, and a clinical essay which outlines my development as a Counselling Psychologist by drawing on the clinical experience and my personal growth throughout the training. The research dossier is comprised of three discrete pieces of research which are inter-related by the theme of psychotherapy with older adults. The first piece is a literature review on existential therapy with older adults. It outlines the advantages of offering existential psychotherapy to older adults. It incorporates models of aging, research on the subjective factors that affect well-being and research on existential therapy with older adults. The second piece of research was an investigation into the experience of individual therapy for older adults, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four main themes emerged from the data entitled: The beginning', The therapeutic relationship', 'Discussing key issues' and The ending'. The third piece of research investigated the group processes in therapy with older adults. A localised theory was generated which related to the core category of 'Counteracting Forces'. This contained three main sub-categories of Group Process, Individual Process and Societal Process. For each process a counteracting force is believed to operate. Overall the portfolio aims to demonstrate my development as a practitioner, integrating theory and practice, as well as attending to my personal development