A Portfolio of Academic, Therapeutic Practice and Research Work Including an Investigation of Childhood Bereavement and the Continuing Bond With a Deceased Parent.

This is a portfolio of academic, therapeutic practice and research work undertaken as part of my Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology at the University of Surrey. It is consisted by an academic, a therapeutic practice and a research dossier. The academic dossier contains three selected papers. The first essay discusses the nature of communication in child psychodynamic therapy and also addresses some countertransference implications. The second essay explores the therapist’s role in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and discusses some benefits of attending the therapist’s countertransference. The third essay is concerned with the experience of psychosis and implications for therapeutic work within the cognitive model for psychosis. The therapeutic practice dossier is related to my clinical experience and includes brief descriptions of the clinical placements, other activities, and other therapeutic work I undertook throughout my training. It also includes a paper, the “Final Clinical Paper”, which offers an overview of my personal and professional development as a counselling psychologist until now. Finally, the research dossier is consisted by three research reports. The first report is a review of the literature on childhood bereavement and the relationship with the deceased. The second report is a narrative analysis study which aimed to explore adults’ narratives of their childhood bereavement and their construction of their relationship with the deceased parent. Finally, the third report is a quantitative study, which aimed to investigate adults’ perceptions of their childhood bereavement