‘Renegades, Outsiders and Lone Warriors’: Professional identity among counsellors with children

Rebecca J. Kirkbride – University of Roehampton/Manchester Metropolitan University

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) have recently produced two competence frameworks for counselling children and young people (CYP) aged 4-18 years (BACP, 2014/19a). BACP also commissioned a ‘Practitioner Manual’ (Kirkbride, 2018), intended to translate the competences into a text-book to support training of CYP counsellors. Prior to these publications, the field of counselling for children and young people (CYP) lacked recognised specialised professional standards for training and practice, leading to counselling for CYP being provided by counsellors from a range of training backgrounds and often without specialised skills and knowledge relevant to practice with CYP clients. Following the introduction of new professional standards and training curricula by the BACP, the aim of this study was to explore how counsellors working with CYP clients perceive their professional identity as well as to understand any influence the practitioner manual and competence frameworks have had on professional development and standards in the field.

Seven qualified counsellors working with CYP clients were interviewed for the study between October and November 2021. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data. Findings were organised under three master themes: individual perception of professional identity; others’ perceptions of professional identity; role of resources on formation and development of professional identity. Sub-themes emerging in the analysis included: discomfort with the concept of ‘professionalism’; ‘outsider’ identity; misunderstandings and misconceptions; and a desire for a coherent and recognised professional identity within the field.
While the sample group was small, study findings indicate that provision of counselling to children and young people could be enhanced by the establishment of a recognised professional identity for child and adolescent counsellors, underpinned by required minimum training standards, and leading to registration with a recognised professional body and accompanying professional title.

In this talk, Rebecca will outline the research undertaken and discuss some of the themes developed from the findings as well as wider implications for the field of counselling for CYP clients.

Bio: Rebecca Kirkbride has worked as a therapist for both adult and CYP clients since completing her initial training at the University of Sussex in 2002. She is the author of three books on counselling children and young people as well as publishing articles and chapters. Since 2018 she has been programme convener for the MA Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy for Children, Adolescents and Families at the University of Roehampton. Rebecca is currently completing her PhD by Publication at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her current interests are in professional identity and training standards in counselling for children and young people.