A portfolio of academic, therapeutic practice and research work: including an investigation of the therapists' and clients' perspectives on the use of Sacred Texts in counselling and psychotherapy

• Main Author: Conforti, Monia
• Published: University of Surrey 2014
• Subjects: 158.3
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.658841

The three sections of the present portfolio, 'Academic Dossier', 'Therapeutic practice Dossier' and 'Research Dossier', contain work produced during my training and are the highest achievement of my academic and professional endeavours within the psychological field. The first section is comprised of three essays. They assume an applied slant including clinical examples to illustrate theoretical considerations using the topics of metaphors, dreams, and 'religious and spiritual problems'. All three matters are considered with a novel angle of investigation illustrated by clinical examples. The second section contains summaries of therapeutic practice experienced in a counselling university service, a prison counselling service, and a charity therapeutic service. The final clinical paper at the end of the section reveals, by means of a 'sacred' metaphor, my personal journey towards my continually developing identity as a counselling psychologist. In the final section a literature review and two empirical studies on the use of Sacred Texts in counselling and psychotherapy offer a preliminary, yet promising presentation of this under-researched type of religious/spiritual intervention. The final findings of the two independent yet deeply connected studies generated two comparable preliminary models of the use of Sacred Texts in therapy. These models emerged from data collected from therapists and real former clients who had firsthand experience of this intervention. Each work points to important implications for practice and to further avenues for research studies. In conclusion, the use of Sacred Texts in therapy has indeed emerged as a rich yet ethically-charged tool that clients value in therapy and with which therapists need to get evermore acquainted.