I’m a BACP Accredited and Registered EMDR Association UK Psychological Therapist practicing privately in Glasgow. My practice developed across organizations in the public and private sectors. I mainly work with abuse, anxiety, chronic health conditions, depression, OCD, and suicide.

Tell us a bit about yourself and what drew you to studying your postgraduate course

My subject area was a masters in Psychotherapy. During the pandemic when all therapeutic work went online, like many of us, the change in pace and manner of working gave me time to think. There had been a few areas of my clinical practice I had wanted to further develop – specifically getting more involved in research. In my opinion, therapy works best when it's personalized, collaborative and research-informed. I wanted to develop research skills from the course and further develop a passion for writing to better inform my client work.

I was drawn to Leeds Beckett as they were one of the few UK institutions providing a flexible program that allowed me to build on top of my prior experiences/qualifications instead of beginning all over again. I’ve found some courses can feel ‘padded’ or unnecessarily bloated. What appealed to me about this course is that it was specific, focused and research oriented, which I was looking for.

What made you choose Leeds Beckett?

Leeds Beckett offered the perfect opportunity to increase my knowledge and skills while being flexible enough to fit within working full time. Despite the pandemic, I could still do the course via distance without the quality of the education being impacted. After arranging a call with Dr. John Hills (course leader), I was struck by his passion for research and the course. He was very knowledgeable, friendly and we quickly built rapport. I remember us both laughing when he referred to a previous mentor of mine as a ‘rockstar’ in the therapy world and briefly sharing some experiences of working in the field.

I felt confident the course would challenge me but that I would enjoy my time learning.

What has been your favourite thing about your time studying at Leeds Beckett?

The tutors' student centred approach. While the course was very demanding, I knew I had support. I also loved the opportunity to present my research (Therapists Facing Masks: A Qualitative Study of the Nature of Relationships Between Masks and Relational Depth) at the BACP Research Conference 2020 and Leeds Beckett Psychotherapy Student Conference. Dissemination/sharing research can be just as important as writing it, but the process can be pretty mysterious. The staff on the course were active in the research community and well informed of how to break into the research world.

I felt the staff genuinely wanted the best for students and felt valued. That hasn’t always been my experience with previous education, so this made Leeds Beckett stand out for me.

What advice would you give someone thinking about studying this course?

In my personal experience, sometimes therapists exclusively focus on experiential learning and forget/ignore research. While I feel the experiential is fundamental to therapeutic practice – research teaches and challenges assumptions. A course like this helps us as clinicians by refining what we can offer our clients.

After this course, there’s no doubt the research knowledge has had a positive impact on my practice.

As Carl Rogers says, ‘the facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true’.

From a practical point of view: much of the course (by nature) is self-directed study, so having a plan of where/when you can commit time to reading and writing helped me. Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress - try writing something (even badly) every day while working on your project to maintain momentum.

I’d say if interested, contact one of the tutors to ask any questions. The phone call with Dr Hills made such a difference.