Emerging Minds in a Changing World – UPCA Students’ Research Summit

The UPCA Student Research Summit – Emerging Minds in a Changing World – is a one-day celebration of creativity, inquiry, and connection within the counselling and psychotherapy research community. This annual event brings together trainee and newly accredited practitioners to showcase the innovation and dedication that are shaping the next generation of research in our field.

Designed to foster learning, dialogue, and collaboration, the summit invites student-led research presentations and workshops. Participants will have the opportunity to share their ideas, explore diverse methodologies, and engage with both peers and established researchers in an inclusive, stimulating environment.

Event Highlights

Keynote Presentations from Leading Researchers and Practitioners

Our keynote speakers are all respected leaders in their specialist areas, each actively contributing to the growth of the research community through their own projects, research teams, and student mentorship. Together, they will guide participants through essential themes and frontiers in counselling and psychotherapy research:

• Oktober Evennett – Opening & Closing Remarks

Chair of Council for UPCA, Oktober will open and close the summit, setting a reflective and visionary tone for the day.

• Dr Faisal Mahmood – How to Choose a Research Subject

An experienced researcher and educator, Faisal will share practical insights into developing and refining research questions that align with professional curiosity and academic rigour.

• Dr Dwight Turner – Creativity in Research

A renowned scholar known for his work on intersectionality and diversity, Dwight will inspire participants to embrace creativity, authenticity, and innovation in their research approaches.

• Professor Gary Winship – Future Vision for Research / Ethics for Autoethnography

A leading voice in psychotherapy research, Gary will explore the ethical and methodological considerations shaping the future of qualitative inquiry.

• Phil Goss – IPA and TA

A specialist in interpretative phenomenological analysis and transactional analysis, Phil will offer a rich exploration of how these methods can illuminate personal and relational meaning in research.

• Heike Myers – Reflexivity in Research

Heike brings her expertise in reflexivity and supervision to support students in understanding the researcher’s position and its impact on inquiry.

Student Workshops

Interactive sessions led by students will run in parallel breakout rooms throughout the day, offering an opportunity to share projects, exchange feedback, and engage in peer-to-peer learning.

Round Tables and Debates

Dynamic discussions with keynote speakers and course leaders will explore pressing questions in research ethics, methodology, and the evolving role of the practitioner-researcher. Expect stimulating debate and thoughtful reflection.

Why Attend

Participants will:

• Gain insights into current and emerging research methodologies.
• Develop confidence in presenting and discussing their own work.
• Experience a sense of belonging within a vibrant community of researchers.
• Leave inspired to take their learning forward into practice and further study.

Call for Abstracts

We invite abstract submissions for student-led presentations and workshops. This is a valuable opportunity to share your research journey, exchange ideas, and contribute to a growing dialogue on the future of psychotherapy and counselling research.

RECORDING

This conference will be recorded and the recordings are included in the live admission tickets. This will be useful for colleagues who are not able to attend the event live and also for those who attend the event live and want to watch it again.

ZOOM

This event will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.

TICKETS

The Ticket price for this conference is £20.00. The ticket provides access to the LIVE event on Zoom & the conference Recording.

CPD CERTIFICATE

After attending the LIVE conference, your CPD certificate will be emailed to you.

If you watch the event on catch-up, you can download your certificate from Onlinevents CPD Library.

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At Onlinevents, we and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a way that aligns with the ethical codes and frameworks of our respective professional organisations. We expect all colleagues attending our events to uphold the ethical principles of their professional membership.

If you are not a member of a professional organisation, we ask that you participate in a way that is both authentic and respectful, fostering a space of mutual learning and professional engagement.

By registering for this event, you agree to be present and interact in a manner that reflects these principles.

KEYNOTES

How to Apply Reflexivity Across the Research Process - Heike Myers

Reflexivity has multiple meanings and connotations in research and is neither a choice nor a research virtue. It is a defining feature of all research. As qualitative researchers, we acknowledge that we actively construct the collation, selection and interpretation of research data. We recognize that research is co-constituted, and a joint product of researcher, participants and their relationship. We understand how meaning making is shaped by particular social contexts: another researcher will tell a different story from our own, and we perceive the researcher’s subjectivity as an opportunity rather than an obstacle (Finlay, 2003).

The presentation will initially explore reflexivity as a concept, briefly touching on some historical and theoretical foundations, before looking at typologies and diversity in reflexive practice. How reflexivity can be applied throughout the research process will be illustrated by examples from my own reflexive experience. Outlining both opportunities and challenges, I am hoping to encourage new researchers to embrace their very own versions of reflexivity.

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How to Use Autoethnography Ethically in Psychotherapy Research - Professor Gary Winship

In this presentation I will provide an overview of autoethnography, from Freud's own analysis to Mary Barnes and Joe Berke's shared autoethnography in their Two Journeys Through Madness. I will consider the ethical challenges of autoethnography and examine some recent developments in autoethnography such as Simon Clarke's Autoethnography quadrilogue. I will make two main points, i) I argue that autoethnography is not an easy way to do research, and ii) if we can do it well, it represent a valuable new frontier for psychotherapy research. Autoethnography might well be heralded as the field of qualitative research that provides the real antidote to AI.

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The Archetype of the Artist: Applying Creative Tools to Enhance Narrative Understanding in Research - Dr Dwight Turner

So much of the research we conduct as counsellors and psychotherapists involves the use of the story. Be it through semi-structured interviews from within a IPA or Narrative Analysis approach, or the exploration of personal narratives within Autoethnography, the importance of the story has become a core facet of the research conducted by students and academics alike.

This brief presentation looks at how creativity in research can aid this storytelling process, broadening the qualitative methodologies beyond the use of just logic, but into spheres where the internalised, and therefore the embodied, experiences of our co researchers might be better understood and explored. From active imagination to drawing to sand play to dreamwork, working with the creative, and with play, we will look at just some of the many developments in contemporary research methods.

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How to Choose a Manageable Research Topic That Delivers - Faisal Mahmood

In this session, we’ll talk about how to choose a research topic that’s both interesting and realistic. I’ll share some practical ways to narrow down your ideas, connect them to your interests, and make sure your topic has real potential for meaningful research.

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STUDENT WORKSHOPS

Weeping Bodies in the Consulting Room: What Might Long-Term Psychodynamic Therapy Have to Offer to Clients with Psychosomatic Presentations? - Mariana Pascu

My mother was ill her whole life. I cannot remember a time when she was well, at home in her own body and mind – only the constant heavy cloud of aching, fatigue, endless hours of lying on the sofa and my father’s fumbled oscillations between heartfelt compassion and frustrated accusations of hypochondria. I now see, my mother’s body was trying to communicate – but nobody was listening.

This paper is written on the basis of a small-scale qualitative research project I conducted at the University of Oxford in 2024, as part of the Master of Studies in Psychodynamic Practice, under the supervision of Dr Alistair Ross and Dr Simon Heyland.

Given the scarcity of research around psychodynamic work with somatisation and virtual absence thereof when in comes to long term therapy, the convoluted conceptual universe reminiscent of Ferenczi’s ‘confusion of tongues’, and the decades-long near total eclipse of the body from psychodynamic practice, my study set out to begin an exploration of what long term psychodynamic therapy may have to offer to weeping bodies. Through comprehensive data analysis of distinctive clinical approaches subsumed to a non-dualistic ontology, the research findings challenge the split of mind and body in the consulting room, surmising the idea of working with the mindbody as a fluid continuum in concrete ways. I argue the research proposes the evolution of the psychodynamic staple of holding “mind in mind” into holding mindbody in mindbody.

The study begins a conversation around the ways in which long-term psychodynamic therapy may have something unique to offer in restoring home within the mindbody continuum, given the level of developmental deficit and often entrenched identifications with the unwellness encountered in the room. Implications for theory, practice, training and research are reflected on, alongside research limitations.

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Between Two Worlds: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Social Class Identities Among Trainee Psychotherapists - Garry Vassallo

Social class has long been acknowledged as an under-researched area in counselling and psychotherapy literature, despite its fundamental influence in peoples’ lives, from mental health to education, housing and employment. A limited number of studies have, however, suggested that social class identities of both therapists and clients impact the therapeutic relationship. Yet social class seems to remain unexplored and virtually absent in many psychotherapy training programmes. This qualitative study therefore aims to add to the literature, by asking how trainee integrative psychotherapists make sense of their social class identities and how they experience social class in training, in working with clients, and in their developing journeys as therapists.

Online, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four trainees, all in their second year or above of study on accredited, postgraduate integrative psychotherapy training courses. The focus of the interviews was participants’ sense-making and experiences of social class and social class identity. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to identify personal experiential statements and themes for each participant. These were then clustered to identify group experiential themes and sub-themes which informed findings.

Three superordinate (group experiential) themes and five sub-themes emerged from the participants’ personal experiential themes:

• “Me now, versus the history of me” Developing narratives of class identity

• "It doesn't sit comfortably with me, and yet I'm part of it" Tensions of training to work in a ‘middle-class’ profession

• “Don't think of me as the posh professional” Anxieties and affinities in client relationships

Participants contextualised their social class identities (SCIs) with family narratives of social class and early life experiences. Subjective experiences of belonging and feeling ‘other’ were interwoven throughout. For all participants, understanding SCI was a dynamic and evolving process. For some, this involved processes of re-evaluation, resistance, acceptance and change. Some participants experienced guilt or ambivalent feelings about the privilege of training to be part of a ‘middle-class’ profession. Yet despite the discomfort of privilege, social class went mainly unspoken among trainees. This silence was also a feature of client relationships, despite recognition of the presence and influence of social class in the room.

The findings suggest that exploration of SCI and social class should be actively encouraged and incorporated in training experiences, supervision and client work.

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Wise Minds - Wise Ways? A Case For Phronesis In The Language Of Psychotherapy And The Landscape Of Practice - Esther Hunt

Phronesis: Practical Wisdom, Pedagogy and Psychotherapy

Counselling and psychotherapy have been taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in higher education (HE) for the past twenty years. In 2022, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) updated its Subject Benchmark Statement, outlining learning outcomes for graduates entering the profession.

While there is extensive research on counselling students' training experiences (Sharma et al., 2023), little has been done to assess the effectiveness of teaching methods used by counsellor educators (Hunt, 2024). The Higher Education Academy (HEA) identified this gap in a 2013 report, noting ongoing weaknesses in educational research in this field (Rutten & Hulme, 2013).

My study focuses on the development of practical wisdom, or phronesis (Holliday, 2015), within trainee psychotherapeutic counsellors. This form of tacit knowledge is vital for practitioners in counselling and psychotherapy (Flyvbjerg et al., 2012; Holliday, 2015), as it fosters ethical decision-making and reflexive practice, essential for safe professional conduct (UK Council for Psychotherapy, 2020). Phronesis, or practical wisdom, is an essential virtue, according to Aristotle. It focuses on making sound ethical judgments and acting appropriately in complex situations. It is gained through experience, reflection, and the development of ethical virtues, rather than through theoretical knowledge alone.

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A Mother's Grief - An Autoethnographical Study Exploring How A Mother And Caregiver Experiences And Understands Her Grief In Relation To Her Daughter’S Chronic Co-Occurring Mental Illness, Substance Dependence And Debilitating Physical Disease - Susan Thorndale

This dissertation explores the lived experience of being a mother and primary caregiver to an adult daughter who faced co-occurring challenges including mental illness, chronic physical health issues, and drug addiction. The research responds to a perceived gap in support and understanding for family members of individuals with such complex needs, and seeks to illuminate the emotional, relational, and societal impact of caregiving under these circumstances.

The study is situated within a critical realist framework and employs an autoethnographic methodology, enabling the researcher to analyse her own narrative data using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2022). The aim is to deepen understanding of living loss and chronic sorrow (Olshansky, 1962; Roos, 2018), and how support systems, both professional and alternative, respond to or neglect the needs of family caregivers.

Five overarching themes were developed: “The emotional landscape of living loss”, “Wearing the mother mantle”, “A life disrupted”, “Love in the fire”, and “From roadblocks to pathways of hope”. These themes reveal the intensity of maternal grief experienced in response to ambiguous and ongoing loss, the shortcomings of statutory services, and the significance of peer support, relational connection, and personal meaning-making in coping with this prolonged distress.

The findings suggest a need for professionals in healthcare, psychotherapy, and social care to recognise the grief and burden carried by family members when caring for loved ones with these co-occurring conditions. The study advocates for a more compassionate, relational, and context-sensitive approach to support, and highlights the potential value of companioning models in therapeutic settings.

(Key words/terms: “Family member”; “maternal grief”; “living loss”; “drug addiction”; “mental illness”; “physical disability”; “co-occurring conditions”).

Learning From the Apprentice: Exploring Factors which Facilitate and/or Impede the Development of Tacit Wisdom. A Narrative Inquiry into Psychotherapeutic Counsellors’ Stories of their Early Career Practice. - Bronwen Jones

This project explores four qualified child and adolescent psychotherapeutic counsellors’ experiences of developing tacit wisdom whilst pursuing professional accreditation. Tacit wisdom is defined as ‘a type of knowing which we accrue in experiential, embodied ways. By repeatedly doing, this practice-based wisdom eventually manifests in intuitive, spontaneous ways of being’ (researcher’s definition).

Through an apprenticeship lens, experiential learning is viewed as a transitional process from Competency to Proficiency. The project utilises Narrative Inquiry underpinned by a Heuristic Process with elements of Arts-Based Research. The researcher’s ethical approach was informed by the principles of Cooperative Inquiry. The research culminates in an anthology of narrative accounts of practitioners’ experiences (‘the artefact’). The researcher analysed and re-storied data from individual conversations to create narrative accounts. Participants created individual and shared art responses to accompany the narratives.

The project identified facilitative and impedimentary factors affecting practitioners’ development. Clinical supervision, peer support and self-knowledge were seen as facilitative elements, whilst financial pressures, time commitments and complex casework that strained practitioners’ emotional capacity impeded tacit wisdom. The artefact will be shared with the accrediting body and training providers to contextualise future policy reviews in terms of practitioners’ lived experiences.

The project invites further research, encouraging relevant institutions to create opportunities for practitioners to take a more active role in future discussions.