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Justify The Relevance of Research Work at The Workplace

Research is essential for the counseling profession for several reasons. It provides data on the impact and effectiveness of counseling, helps counselors improve their methods and skills, and ensures they are working within the limits of their competency. Research informs evidence-based practices and allows counselors to demonstrate how counseling changes lives. It is important for counselors to engage in research to stay aware of innovations, evaluate their own effectiveness, and address any uncertainties they encounter in their work. Research from colleagues' work and from studies on client experiences and specific issues can also help counselors understand clients' perspectives and needs.

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98 views

Justify The Relevance of Research Work at The Workplace

Research is essential for the counseling profession for several reasons. It provides data on the impact and effectiveness of counseling, helps counselors improve their methods and skills, and ensures they are working within the limits of their competency. Research informs evidence-based practices and allows counselors to demonstrate how counseling changes lives. It is important for counselors to engage in research to stay aware of innovations, evaluate their own effectiveness, and address any uncertainties they encounter in their work. Research from colleagues' work and from studies on client experiences and specific issues can also help counselors understand clients' perspectives and needs.

Uploaded by

Tendai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Justify the relevance of research work at the workplace

Research, defined as "an activity conducted to increase knowledge by systematically collecting,


analyzing, and interpreting data to answer carefully formulated questions about publicly
observable phenomena", is imperative to advancing a profession. Research informs what services
should be provided, to whom services should be delivered, and how services should be
implemented. In the counseling field, this mandate equates conducting research to help clients,
supervisees, and students. Research has played a vital role in counselling and its importance
cannot be overemphasized. It has given evidence that counselling changes lives and has helped
demonstrate in a range of issues where counselling can be helpful and it’s positive impact on
clients. In recent years research has become more important even though research in the
development of counselling has always been there since the 1930s.

Research helps improve and develop methods in counselling, helps educate practitioners, it
allows counsellors to work within the limits of their competency. Currently, counselling
profession is focusing more on evidence based practices and data based models, hence research is
an important aspect of counselling profession (Baker, 2012). In counselling years of experience do
not necessarily translate to increased knowledge, instead cognitive complexity increase
competency. Counsellors need to acquire additional skills to relate to clients by blending analytical
skills, interventional skills and communication skills to produce desirable outcomes. All these
skills can be acquired by engaging in research. It is important to be aware of the ethical and legal
consideration when working with clients.

Research is vital in the field of counseling because it provides with proper data on the impact and
effectiveness of counseling. Cooper (2011) indicated, that quantitative research has helped
counselor in the filed because it provides with values and dominated research can prove that
treatment can be effective. It has been demonstrated in counseling setting is has help counselor
with various treatment and provides treatment with a positive outcome. Therefore, the relationship
has increased as there are numerous researches done in counseling that has helped with the client
treatment. Some cases the counselor must support their counseling session with an evidence-based
practice to show that counseling made an impact in the client’s life.

Evidence- based practice is a clinical modality that can be used for therapy to prove with research
that counseling is effective by providing measures and outcomes. So, by conducting a research the
counselor is able to prove the treatment is effective. The counselor is also able to see if the
interventions and outcome is proper to use so as to demonstrate their work towards the benefit of
the client. Counselling and psychotherapy are largely private activities, conducted alone in
conditions of confidentiality. Research studies allow therapists to learn about and from the work
of their colleagues, and give the profession a means of pooling knowledge and experience on an
international scale. Research findings can provide trainees and practitioners with useful
orientation and guidance in situations when they are not sure how to proceed. Similarly, trained
practitioners who struggle in their work with a particular client group or presented problem can
turn to research findings to learn more about client needs or the best ways of working with
certain problems (e.g. the default therapeutic stance for a problem). Research findings can also
help to avoid practices and approaches which are actually harmful (Barker, 2011). In sum
research provides guidance in the absence of or in addition to other information (like experience,
intuition, theoretical concepts).

Counsellors and psychotherapists have a moral duty to make sure that what they think is doing
good actually is. Whilst in many situations trainees and practitioners are well advised to trust
their own intuitive sense of what clients are experiencing, they should be aware that they are not
immune from misperceptions and misjudgments. Research can help in this context to see
counselling and psychotherapy from the clients’ perspective and to understand what they are
really going through. Brief research tools and questionnaires can be used to collect feedback on
the progress of therapy not only for research projects but also in routine practice. This
information can be utilised by practitioners to review the therapy process and make sure they are
on track with their work (Fleet, 2013). Such a practice is in line with the increased focus on the
importance of service user’s perspectives and experiences to improve treatment quality.

Counselling and psychotherapy are new, emerging professions, and innovations in theory and
technique are springing up all the time. Until the 1930s, the only form of psychotherapy that
existed was psychoanalysis. There are now dozens of well-established approaches. Counselling
and psychotherapy are activities where innovative interventions are continually being generated
by practitioners, which subsequently need to be evaluated through research. Given that there is
evidence that therapeutic interventions can do harm as well as good (Fleet, 2013), an informed
awareness of the value of research in checking the value of innovations is indispensable.
One of the chief sources of job satisfaction experienced by many counsellors and
psychotherapists is a sense of continually learning about human nature in response to the lives
and personal worlds that clients allow them to enter. As part of this process, practitioners may
find themselves with ‘burning questions’ that can only be answered by carrying out research.
The professional and career development path taken by experienced therapists may lead many to
seek to consolidate their professional identity by making a contribution to the research literature
(McLeod, 2011).

Like other human service professions such as medicine, nursing, clinical psychology, teaching
and social work, there is an expectation that members of the counselling/ psychotherapy
profession will be able to offer a rational basis for their interventions through drawing on a
research-based body of knowledge. This trend is reflected in the increasing movement toward
university- and college-based training for these professions, with significant emphasis in these
courses on research awareness and skills.

There has been a movement in recent years to develop ways of using brief research
questionnaires to collect feedback from clients on a regular basis, as a means of generating
information that can provide both client and therapist a basis for reviewing the progress of
therapy. This kind of data can also give therapists a better sense of their own effectiveness with
different client groups, and can feed in to supervision and training.

The professional role and status of the therapist mean that he or she has a particular perspective
on the therapy process. Research studies that focus on the experience of clients can serve as
useful reminders that the client may have a different perspective on what is happening. In
addition, research into experiences of specific problems and conditions can help to sensitize
therapists to the needs of clients from these groups.

Being research-informed is an essential component of all competent counselling and


psychotherapy practice, because it is not possible to be a good therapist without possessing a
spirit of openness to inquiry and learning. Good research in the domain of counselling and
psychotherapy always exists in a dialogue with practice. Research is a collective activity. Each
study draws on what has gone before, and its inevitable imperfections and inconclusiveness will
be carried forward by someone yet to come.
An example of how research can inform practice was in the instance of a counsellor who was
working with a client who continued to self-harm despite their on-going therapy. This had the
effect of making the counsellor feel uncertain of their proficiency. By reading the analysis of the
research findings of Fleet and Mintz (Fleet and Mintz, 2013) the counsellor came to understand
that all five counsellors who took part in this study experienced a range of distressing and intense
emotions and this was usual when working with clients who self-harm. By further reading, it was
noted that their research supported the fact that this type of client work can affect the
counsellor’s self-confidence and can also have the effect of making make them feel de-skilled.

Running in parallel with the development of new techniques has been the opening up of new
client groups, and areas for the application of counselling and psychotherapy. The relevance and
effectiveness of existing models in these new contexts is an important topic for research. If
research is carried on a client's background and important issues are found to emerge, then
the theoretical belief formerly assumed might have to be changed in order to ensure the
effectiveness of the chosen theory. If psychoanalysis is also carried on a client's behavior,
emotions and thoughts, and there is need to research further, new information might emerge
necessitating the need to change a theoretical belief previously implied. Research on
behavior entails a person's exposure, experiences and conditioning which can change
previous beliefs held by the counselor. Human emotions are based on esteem and
actualization which if research unearths a different scenario, then the beliefs previously held
are bound to change. Emotions and behavior are said to grow from thoughts. For instance, if
research indicates that the root cause of a clients' problems are due to thoughts rather than
emotions, then the theoretical beliefs shall have to be adjusted in order to focus on more
productive counseling theories (Bond, 2013).

There is a significant level of resourcing of counselling and psychotherapy from public finances,
and this financial backing brings with it a responsibility to demonstrate the efficacy of what is
being offered to clients. It does not convince the public at large for counsellors to assert that, in
their personal experience, most clients gain a great deal from therapy. More rigorous, objective
evidence is required. If counselling/psychotherapy is to maintain its good public image, and
continue to attract funding from government agencies, health providers and employers, then
effective, research-based systems of accountability are essential.

In conclusion, it is important for counsellors to keep up to date with research findings in order to
ensure that their work with clients is rooted in robust rationale. It brings their knowhow and
methods of treatment up to date and gives them a choice of interventions to apply when and
where appropriate in an ethical way.
References

Baker, S.B. (2012) A new view of evidence-based practice, available from


http://ct.counseling.org/2012/12/a-new-view-of-evidence-based-practice/ (accessed May 2013).
Barker, C., Pistrang, N. and Elliott, R. (2002). Research Methods in Clinical Psychology: An
Introduction for Students and Practitioners, 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley. Timulak, L. (2008).
Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy. London: Sage.
Bond, T. (2004) Ethical guidelines for research counselling and psychotherapy. Rugby: British
Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. (p.9).
Bond, T. (2013) BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling & Psychotherapy,
Lutterworth: British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Cooper, M. (2008). Essential Research Findings in Counselling and Psychotherapy: The Facts
Are Friendly. London: Sage. (This book offers a unique, accessible, overview of the practical
conclusions that can be drawn from research into all aspects of therapy.)
Cooper, M. (2011) ‘Meeting the demand for evidence–based practice’, Therapy Today, Volume
22, Issue 4.
Cottrell, S. (2003) The Study Skills Handbook Second Edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Fleet, D. and Mintz, R. (2013) ‘Counsellors’ perceptions of client progression when working
with clients who intentionally self-harm and the impact such work has on the therapist’,
Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, Volume 13, (1). (p. 44-52).
McLeod, J. (2011) Doing Counselling Research 2nd Edition, London: Sage Publications

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