Research is an integral part of the Counselling program at Murdoch. Reading and critiquing the research of others helps to inform our practice. Conducting our own research helps make us accountable in our practice.
 
The staff in Murdoch’s Counselling program are active researchers. Hearing about staff research projects provides another entrée for students into the important contribution that can be made as well as an appreciation of the trials and tribulations of the research process. Students are encouraged to be always curious and reflective in their practice, to notice areas in which there are questions to be answered and to discuss their interests with staff.
 
Our staff and students are active in researching a number of counselling issues using a range of different methodological approaches. Several research projects involve studying the different aspects of therapeutic work to find out ‘what works’. Others cover a diverse range of broader interests in human nature spanning child development to the neuropsychological effects of substance use.
 
Students are encouraged to incorporate person-centric design. Specifically, their projects are practice-relevant, ethical in method and intent, accountable to our clients as well as involving our clients as collaborators in the research process. We encourage reflective practice and an emergenic framework, allowing the research process to unfold and change over time. Our methodology is responsively qualitative and quantitative, and qualities of experiential process and relationship are prominent data types in our research.

Some of the specific staff and student interests and projects are outlined in more detail below

Name

Main Research Interests

Corinne Reid

Understanding the therapeutic relationship; evaluating therapeutic processes; the social and emotional development of young children both indigenous and non-indigenous; telecounselling as a mechanism for rural and remote service provision; understanding exceptional achievement in sport & life from a person-centred perspective

Recovery from complex trauma, resilience in adults, adult development in terms of identity and self-concept, and the assessment of psychological interventions in the treatment of health issues such as chronic pain and cancer

Robyn Bett

Mandy Browne

Understanding the artfulness of therapy; the nature of the primitive, somatic responses to therapeutic engagement; How adolescents experience the therapeutic process