A Portfolio of Academic, Therapeutic Practice and Research Work Including an Investigation of the Experiences of Carers of People Who Hear Voices.

This portfolio represents the culmination of the three year training of becoming a Counselling Psychologist. It aims to reflect my personal and professional development through the presentation of three different dossiers, an academic, a therapeutic and a research dossier. The academic dossier incorporates three essays from three different years. The first year essay explores how the literature on the development of eating disorders in males may be of use to Counselling Psychologists working with this client group. The second year essay provides a comparative analysis of Freud's and Jung's views on religion, and finally the third year essay discusses depression through an evolutionary perspective. The therapeutic dossier aims to shed light on my clinical experience through descriptions of my placements and my placement activities and also it addresses my therapeutic practice through a reflective account of my personal and professional development as an emerging Counselling Psychologist. Finally, the research dossier consists of my literature review and my two qualitative projects. My literature review critically explores relevant research regarding the experience and psychological well-being for carers of relatives who experience psychosis. My first qualitative study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the experience for carers of relatives with psychosis and particularly their understanding and responses to voice hearing. Finally my second qualitative study employed Grounded Theory so as to provide the basis for theory building regarding the experience of facilitators of groups for carers of people experiencing severe mental health difficulties