Experiential exercises to create an open group culture from which support can be gained. Opportunity to reflect critically on personal and professional journeys.

The aim of this module is for students to produce a sustained and persuasive argument concerning how their personal and professional experience as senior practitioners has equipped them for the high level work required to engage with this Doctoral programme.

This is an opportunity for students to demonstrate:

• critical reflection on and review of the strands of their personal and professional experience which have brought them to this point in their life;
• the range and depth of their professional knowledge and experience;
• their ability to critically review, analyse and evaluate their own professional practice, and to manage their own learning, solve problems and communicate with others.
• a convincing case for how work already undertaken is relevant both to the level and proposed focus of the doctoral work to be undertaken on the Programme

During the module students will critically examine their existing skills, and identify areas of development required, in order to be able to gain and utilise the necessary skills for becoming effective doctoral level researchers and for the transferrable skills required in their future careers. The content will be based on the four domains of the researcher development framework these being:

a)    The knowledge, intellectual abilities and techniques to do research.

b)    The knowledge and skills to work with others and ensure the wider impact of research

c)    The knowledge of the standards, requirements and professionalism to do research.

d)    The personal qualities and approach to be an effective researcher.

The process will be facilitated by their participation in a number of workshops which are designed to be used by them to benchmark their skill level in that particular area. In addition a series of experiential sessions will enable them to establish their confidence and ability in less concrete aspects of the framework such as creativity, critical analysis & reflection, self-management and professional engagement.

The research council’s joint statement of skills training requirements for research students sets out the skills that students are expected to acquire and develop during their doctoral level study. These requirements are designed to ensure that the student is fully equipped with all the necessary tools and skills in order to function in a diverse and dynamic academic and wider employment market. The aim of this module therefore is to allow students to undertake a detailed assessment of their own knowledge, skills and abilities and to apply this to the national researcher development framework in order to identify areas in which advancement of their existing skills and knowledge is required during their doctoral studies. Students will be encouraged to share skills within a collaborative environment.

Thirty-six hours of experiential Continuing Professional Development (as defined by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) that are facilitated by the student (e.g. workshop, seminar, conference presentation), and/or led by qualified and experienced practitioner academics in the fields of Counselling and Psychotherapy and/or Psychological Trauma, who are nationally recognised as ‘experts’ in their fields.

The Seminars/Workshops/Conferences that make-up this module will contribute to a self-directed doctoral programme of study, which aims towards originality of thought, understanding and practical application shared by a community of scholarly practitioners. They take the form of Seminars/Workshops/Conferences discussion and presentations requiring preparatory reading of specific texts. These Continuing Professional Development Seminars/Workshops/Conferences will feature the inspiration of authoritative experts who combine academic insights with professional experience as practitioners. Students will be encouraged to think about and share ideas, review them systematically and present new paradigms that contain the best of up-to-date knowledge and skills with insights for future work.

Opportunities are offered to take part in individual and group dialogue and discourse with experts regarding what constitutes professional knowledge. The module encourages students to challenge and debate at a doctoral level and supports peer cohesion and contact.

The aim of this module is for students to demonstrate their ability to contribute to their own strategic development as a researcher-practitioner, and to probe specialist areas of Counselling, Psychotherapy, and/or Psychological Trauma research and practice. Through engagement with relevant CPD activities and critical reflection, students will be able to demonstrate their development through discussion, dialogue, and critical discovery.

The context, focus and question for the proposed research project forms the basis of the content in this module. Students will develop a rationale for the project’s value, usefulness and originality and locate this in the wider context of issues, debates and methods within the disciplines of either Counselling, Psychotherapy or Psychological Trauma. Other relevant academic disciplines will also be drawn upon where relevant for informing the project scope and content. Drawing on earlier programme learning and content, a comprehensive methodological approach for undertaking the project appropriate to the research question will be developed and refined, including addressing appropriate research paradigms and the nature and limitations of specific research methods. As researcher practitioners, students will also have the opportunity to locate themselves and their practice within this framework.  The connections between the research question, objectives, and methodology (especially research design and data gathering) will be considered and debated to enable the effective interpretation of evidence and conclusions advanced. The ethical considerations of any planned research will be explored in detail together with an identification of any resources required to complete the project, a plan of how these resources can be accessed and a timetable for the completion of the project.

• To enable students to establish advanced research practice in Counselling, Psychotherapy or Psychological Trauma
• To examine critically the relationship between a candidate's core research question and questions of research design and methodology
• To encourage students to embark on the process of research design in the light of extant scholarship and professional practice and context
• To demonstrate how candidates might construct critical criteria for evaluating the quality, probity and reliability of their research methods.

This module will introduce writing for publication to different audiences. The elements and stages involved in the production of publishable work will be explored in sessions and experiences of this discussed. The concept of original contribution to knowledge will be examined in relation to the possibilities that this offers in topic area, method, synthesis of theory and practice, engagement with conceptual issues and the ability to record, analyse and critiques of areas of practice. This module facilitates active independent thinking and planning for writing for a range of purposes and different audiences that offers students the ability to grow their confidence in dissemination of their research ideas beyond a purely academic audience. As practitioner researchers this is a particularly important part of their development and brings additional skills in doing that for future audiences beyond doctoral study. Students will develop an awareness of their potential audiences and their own style in bringing a voice to their research ideas and applications in their areas of practice.

The overall aim of the module is to enable student to produce a range of publishable quality pieces of work that speak to different audiences, and to enable them to effectively communicate and disseminate their ideas and application to their areas of practice. The module will enable the student to produce work of publishable quality for the intended audience and according to the guidance given for the chosen source of publication. The work will contain an original contribution to knowledge, either in topic area, method, synthesis of theory and practice, engagement with conceptual issues, and its ability to record, analyse and critique an area of practice. This module aims to allow the students to develop a range of writing styles to facilitate a voice for their ideas in their chosen target audience. The work will add worth and value to the area of practice and extend the understanding of that area for the audience involved.

This module provides an opportunity for students to undertake a research project, normally empirical in nature, and focussed on their current practice. During this period students will complete a literature review; gather data to address their research question; express these data succinctly; analyse the data; draw conclusions in relation to their research question and reflect on their research and its significance, making recommendations for future practice and research.

A thesis may have elements of empirical data, or may have none. For example, a thesis dealing critically with the historical development of theory, skills or competences, may analyse how these areas of knowledge have emerged and been deployed, which may mean that no significant empirical data is included; however, critically appraising the effects that advances in new areas of knowledge might have had, could involve the inclusion of empirical data, illustrating changes in practice as a result of these developments.

The module aims to:

• Provide the student with an opportunity to investigate systematically and in-depth a topic of direct relevance for his or her chosen area of application.
• Enable the student to draw on and contribute to the growing body of applied knowledge, evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence.
• Enable the student to make an original contribution to knowledge.