Qualitative Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy

Front Cover
SAGE, Dec 22, 2000 - Psychology - 256 pages
Qualitative methods are particularly suited to answering the kinds of questions that counsellors and psychotherapists need to ask about their practice. Qualitative Research Methods in Counselling and Psychotherapy has therefore been written to help researchers find their way through the range of methodologies and techniques available to them.

Leading expert, and best selling author John McLeod takes the reader through each stage of the research process, explaining techniques for gathering data, writing up the study and evaluating the findings. Each qualitative method is clearly described and critically assessed in terms of its own strengths and weaknesses. Examples from actual research studies are given to show how

 

Contents

1 Qualitative Inquiry and the Reconstruction of Counselling and Psychotherapy
1
2 The Relevance and Contribution of Hermeneutics
21
3 The Phenomenological Approach
35
the Core of Qualitative Method
54
5 Ethnographic Approaches to Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy
64
6 Using Grounded Theory
70
7 The Analysis of Conversation Discourse and Narrative
90
8 Qualitative Inquiry as Bricolage
119
9 How to do Qualitative Research
130
10 The Role of Qualitative Methods in Outcome Research
161
11 Critical Issues in the Use of Qualitative Inquiry
181
References
210
Index
232
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About the author (2000)

John McLeod is Professor of Counselling at the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland, and previous Professor of Counselling Studies at Keele University, England. Originally trained in person-centered counseling and psychotherapy, he has shifted in recent years in the direction of a narrative-informed approach. Research interests include the development of qualitative methods for the hermeneutic narrative analysis of interview and psychotherapy transcript data, and the creation of practitioner-oriented research strategies. He has published six books, including An Introduction to Counselling, Second Edition (Open University Press 1998), which incorporates a chapter on narrative approaches, Narrative & Psychotherapy (Sage Ltd, 1997), which reviews recent developments in narrative-informed theory, research and practice, and Qualitative Research in Counselling & Psychotherapy (Sage Ltd, 2000), which includes a chapter on research into narrative and discourse in psychotherapy. He has also published over 30 chapters and papers on a range of counseling and psychotherapy topics. In addition to their academic work, both Angus and McLeod are practicing clinicians who see clients, train and supervise clinical psychologists in psychotherapy and counseling skills and are engaged in psychotherapy process and outcome research. In their work, they attempt to fully integrate theory and research into practice, and they believe that each component of the process-practice, theory, evaluation/research-inform each other.

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