Terry Hanley

The University of Manchester · School of Environment and Development

The Therapists as Research-informed Practitioners (TRP) is a research group aiming to enhance research training for counsellors, psychotherapists, and counselling psychologists. It provides learning and professional development events, supporting research and best-practice developments, and making policy recommendations to promote effective and sus...

Purpose The ever increasing prevalence of mental health disorders is subsequently resulting in an ever increasing burden on mental health services globally. Due to need outweighing capacity, many turn to, or are signposted to, online resources. Online mental health chatrooms are chat-based services that users can frequent to discuss their mental he...

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is the largest professional membership body within the field of counselling and psychological therapies in the UK, but there is a mismatch between its membership of >65,000 and its research impact. This article sets out a potential strategic direction as considered by an informal grou...

Background The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing in many areas of healthcare, including mental healthcare. The automated nature of such technologies has the potential to be developed to work with large numbers of people. This paper examines the way that student therapists experience using an interactive text‐based machine client as...

Background Despite the rise in therapist use of social media, current ethical guidelines have not provided clear guidance on how to use social media. Ethical guidelines commonly suggest therapists apply the same ethical principles advised for their offline work, without thorough consideration of differing potential ethical dilemmas online. Methods...

Purpose The aim of this research is to gain an insight into the attitudes that therapists, both qualified and trainee, have towards the use of artificial intelligence (AI)/machine therapy in therapeutic practice. The paper also aims to gain an insight into attitudes towards machine therapy and the potential of developing a therapeutic alliance with...

In the era of “culture wars,” instances where client and practitioner discuss political issues in therapy may become more frequent. This paper introduces the way in which “culture wars” manifest in today's societies and highlights the importance of therapeutic practitioners to engage with and explore their own views in relation to these polarising...

This textbook aims to support counsellors, psychotherapists, and counselling psychologists to develop a creative research-informed practice. Following from the authors' earlier title Enjoying Research, the book covers qualitative, quantitative, pluralistic, and mixed methods approaches with a special focus on diversity, researcher support and innov...

This textbook aims to support counsellors, psychotherapists, and counselling psychologists to develop a creative research-informed practice. Following from the authors' earlier title Enjoying Research, the book covers qualitative, quantitative, pluralistic, and mixed methods approaches with a special focus on diversity, researcher support and innov...

Hanley et al. offer an overview of core principles of quantitative research and how these might be used to answer descriptive, comparative or relationship-based research questions. Following on from this, the authors discuss adventurous projects attempting to articulate a theory of change for online therapeutic services. An overarching mixed method...

Objectives The use of idiographic goal‐based outcome measures (GBO) to monitor progress in digital therapy with adults has received little research attention. This study aimed to identify broad patterns of GBO engagement in an anonymous digital therapy service for adults, including the extent to which goals are recorded as being met by the measures...

Background: Young people are increasingly seeking out web-based support for their mental health and well-being. Peer supportforums are popular with this age group, with young individuals valuing the fact that the forums are available 24/7, providing asafe and anonymous space for exploration. Currently, little systematic evaluation of the helpfulnes...

Online digital mental health communities can contribute to users' mental health positively and negatively. Yet the measurement of experience, outcomes and impact mechanisms relating to digital mental health communities is difficult to capture. In this paper we demonstrate the development of an online experience measure for a specific children and y...

The interest in student mental health and wellbeing has increased in recent years. Additionally, there is a rising volume of students seeking support. Numerous online resources have been developed to meet this need, including anonymous web-based therapy. To date, there has been little focus upon how students may utilise such a service, and this stu...

Current ethical guidelines for therapists who make use of social media are very limited. As a consequence, they leave much open to interpretation by professionals, an openness that may place the public and professionals at risk. This is particularly of note as therapists are increasingly making use of social media and many professionals are taking...

Purpose Literature suggests young people (YP) from ethnic minority backgrounds face barriers in accessing mental health support due to discrimination and stigma and so this study aims to explore how YP from ethnic minority backgrounds interact with online counselling. Design/methodology/approach The study used secondary data provided by Kooth, a d...

This virtual Research Methods edition of Counselling and Psychotherapy Research invites readers to consider and discuss the issue of therapist-researchers’ ‘epistemological home(s)’. What do we hold as ‘true’ and how do we generate knowledge about that?

For older adolescents, the COVID-19 pandemic and UK restrictions arrived during a critical period in the transition to adulthood. Early research exploring impact of the pandemic paints a picture of worsened adolescent wellbeing and mental health. We explore the subjective experiences of 16- to 19-year-olds during the first UK lockdown, with an emph...

BACKGROUND Young people are increasingly going online to seek out web-based support for their mental health and wellbeing. Peer support forums are popular with this age group, with young individuals valuing the fact that they are available 24/7, providing a safe and anonymous space for exploration. Currently, little systematic evaluation of the hel...

Background Young people are increasingly seeking out web-based support for their mental health and well-being. Peer support forums are popular with this age group, with young individuals valuing the fact that the forums are available 24/7, providing a safe and anonymous space for exploration. Currently, little systematic evaluation of the helpfulne...

Online digital mental health communities can contribute to users’ mental health positively and negatively. Yet the measurement of outcomes and impact relating to digital mental health communities is difficult to capture. In this paper we demonstrate the development of an online experience measure for a specific children and young people’s community...

Single-session, brief interventions in therapy for young people make up a large proportion of service provision, including in digital mental health settings. Current nomothetic mental health measures are not specifically designed to capture the benefit or ‘change’ directly related to these brief interventions. As a consequence, we set out to design...

Counselling and psychotherapy are not common professions that are considered alongside the work of sporting institutions, such as football academies. This paper therefore provides a brief reflection upon the existing research considering the way that such institutions currently engage with the mental health and well-being of those that they support...

Background For older adolescents, the COVID-19 pandemic and associated UK restrictions have arrived during a critical period in the transition to adulthood, and early research exploring impact of the pandemic paints a picture of worsened adolescent wellbeing and mental health. We set out to explore the subjective experiences of 16- to 19-year-olds...

Background and Aims: For older adolescents, the COVID-19 pandemic and associated UK restrictions arrived during a critical period in the transition to adulthood. Early research exploring impact of the pandemic paints a picture of worsened adolescent wellbeing and mental health. We explore the subjective experiences of 16- to 19-year-olds during the...

Introduction: The immediate impact of COVID-19 on morbidity and mortality has raised the need for accurate and real time data monitoring and communication. The aim of this study is to document initial observations from multiple digital services providers during the COVID-19 crisis, especially those related to mental health and wellbeing. Materials...

This paper reflects upon the history of online counselling and psychotherapy research. It provides a reflection upon the growing body of research in this field and discusses the impact of the recent global COVID‐19 pandemic upon it. It specifically argues that the pandemic has been an evolutionary catalyst for developments in online therapy. Therap...

Aim The prevalence of mental health difficulties and the demand for psychological support for students in higher education (HE) appear to be increasing. Online therapy is a widely accessible resource that could provide effective support; however, little is known about such provision. The aim of this study was therefore to answer the research questi...

Purpose This study is exploratory research which aims to understand how users gain support from the online mental health community (OMHC) 18 percent and whether engagement with this community may possibly lead to increased self-efficacy. Design/methodology/approach In total, 128 users of an OMHC, 18 percent, completed an online questionnaire that...

BACKGROUND Online counselling and support has become increasingly commonplace for children and young people (CYP). Currently there is limited research that focuses upon the mechanisms of change within complex telepsychology platforms, a factor that makes designing and implementing outcome measures challenging. OBJECTIVE This project set out to art...

Background Web-based counseling and support has become increasingly commonplace for children and young people (CYP). Currently, there is limited research that focuses on the mechanisms of change within complex telepsychology platforms, a factor that makes designing and implementing outcome measures challenging. Objective This project aims to artic...

This paper presents a novel conceptualisation of the school context by examining the ‘personal’ (emotional wellbeing), the ‘political’ (everyday political actions and power relations) and the ‘Political’ (the Political system, including electoral politics and governmental policy) and how these interrelate. Informed by literatures from a range of di...

Background: Young people increasingly look towards the Internet for support. Online forums have been developed to provide mental health support, but they have received little attention in the research to date. Aims: To summarise the existing literature examining how individuals use online forums to obtain support for mental health difficulties. Met...

A qualitative approach was used to explore young people’s experiences of using synchronous and asynchronous online forums to gain insight into the use of online services for mental health. Nineteen young people took part in two online synchronous focus groups facilitated by the online counselling service, KOOTH.com. Inductive thematic analysis indi...

Background Schools are commonly asked to take on roles that support the emotional well‐being of students. These practices are in line with humanistic education theory and can be difficult to fulfil by schools. Broader ecological pressures, such as periods of austerity, are likely to add to the difficulty in meeting students’ needs. Aims To explore...

Objectives The quality of therapeutic relationships in psychiatric services has a significant impact upon the therapeutic outcomes for people diagnosed with a severe mental illness. As previous work has not explicitly explored service users’ in‐depth views about the emotional impact of these relationships, the objective of this work was to bring th...

This chapter describes and discusses policy and policy research relevant to school-based counselling within the United Kingdom (UK). It begins with an overview of the educational context in which school-based counselling is situated before providing a brief historical perspective of such work within the UK. To contextualise these discussions, key p...

Migration has been associated with distress and severe mental health problems among a range of populations around the world, including the Polish people. Poles are currently the largest immigrant population in the UK and, despite these statistics, little is still known about mental health needs of this group. This study adopted a systematic review...

Background: The Internet has the potential to help young people by reducing the stigma associated with mental health and enabling young people to access services and professionals which they may not otherwise access. Online support can empower young people, help them develop new online friendships, share personal experiences, communicate with othe...

This paper puts forward a framework for supervising teaching staff whose roles involve supporting the emotional well-being of young people and young adults. Initially, the increasing focus upon the interface between education and health is outlined and the potential for this ‘emotional labour’ to cause distress to those in helping roles is consider...

Objective Counselling within educational settings has now become commonplace. As with the advent of the use of new technologies in teaching, such developments are also impacting the broader support structures available to students. One development is the move of schools to offer pupils access to online counselling services. To date, such practices...

Introduction: Women in the military are a minority group who, in addition to facing exposure to traumatic events due to the nature of the work, face additional stressors while deployed. It is argued that these exposures and experiences place individuals at a significantly higher risk of finding it difficult adjusting post deployment. This paper fo...

This paper draws on material generated from a qualitative study of educational impacts of a British welfare reform affecting housing rent subsidy, size and location commonly known as ?the bedroom tax? (Bragg et al., 2015), which was partly taken as a topic for study specifically because of its iconic status as a controversial and unpopular welfare...

Many young adults diagnosed with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) intend to go to college and/or university, yet research suggests that these individuals find aspects of college and university life challenging. To explore the views of individuals directly affected by these challenges, a systematic review of the existing qualitative literature in th...

Online counselling is increasingly being used as an alternative to face-to-face student counselling. Using an exploratory mixed methods design, this project investigated the practice by examining the types of therapeutic goals that 11- to 25-year-olds identify online in routine practice. These goals were then compared to goals identified in equival...

There are established links between education and well-being, and between poverty and education. This article draws on interviews with parents of school-aged children impacted by a policy in the UK commonly referred to as the ‘bedroom tax’. A critical psychology perspective to education is put forward, acknowledging the complex interrelationships b...

Hanley, T., O’Hara, D., & Steffen, E. (2016). Resarch: From consumer to producer. InB. Douglas, R. Woolfe, S. Strawbridge, E. Kasket & V. Galbraith (Eds.), Handbook of Counselling Psychology, 4th ed. (pp. 330-345). Sage.

This chapter discusses: *The philosophical and theoretical underpinnings to goal articulation within therapy. * Research issues related to working with therapeutic goals * Specific practices that therapists might use whilst working with goals in therapy * Some of the challenges that therapists might encounter when working with goals in therapy * Th...

With the growing influence of China (Chinese people/culture) on the world's politics, economy, and culture, the psychological wellbeing of Chinese people is becoming increasingly important for both researchers and practitioners. Despite this, the cultural responsiveness of many conventional psychotherapeutic models has often been brought into quest...

Background The discipline of applied psychology has begun to reflect more explicitly on the social justice values and practices of the profession. This paper presents the first stage of research in a larger project aiming to explore ‘social justice’ in applied psychology in the UK, and takes as its focus the branch of counselling psychology. Aim T...

Content & Focus This editorial reflects upon the concept of ‘information asymmetry’ within counselling psychology. As therapists we commonly prize our psychological knowledge and attend workshop after workshop to provide us with more. We then attempt to wield the knowledge that we have attained in a sensitive and ethically minded way in our work wi...

Content & Focus: This editorial provides a brief reflection upon the need for counselling psychologists to be both consumers and producers of research. It takes inspiration from the 2014 Division of Counselling Psychology Annual Conference and elaborates upon a chapter that I have been recently involved in writing for the forthcoming revised editio...

Content & Focus : In introducing this Special Edition on Existential Approaches and Issues in Counselling Psychology this Editorial invites readers to pause and reflect on the significance of the existential paradigm for counselling psychology. Starting with a reflection on heightened existential awareness during a moment of perceived significance...

Content & Focus: This Editorial provides a brief reflection of a year in the life of Counselling Psychology Review. It looks back and summarises the activities of the publication over the past year before looking forward and contemplating future developments (if only we had a time machine! – a topical reference to one of the papers in this particul...

Content & Focus This Special Edition of Counselling Psychology Review is focused on systematic reviews. Whilst considering the topic for the editorial to begin this Special Edition, we considered one overarching question to be of fundamental importance to attempt to tackle: What is a systematic review? We decided to have this as the focus of the ed...

Aim Research is frequently cited as core to counselling psychology. Yet we know little about where counselling psychologists publish their own findings. The present study aims to answer the following two research questions: (1) Where do UK-based counselling psychologists disseminate their research? (2) To what extent do counselling psychologists di...

Content and Focus Research publications often adopt two major forms. Firstly the generic edition, which publishes all work that has met a certain threshold of quality. The second type of offering is the special edition, a collection of papers held together with a common theme running through it. Such strategies can be viewed as ‘rural’ or ‘urban’ i...

Content & Focus Acting as a preface to the Special Edition on ‘Power and Equality’, this editorial reflects on changes in our society’s relationship with the concept of power and suggests that a sense of (political) powerlessness in the face of inequality and abuse of power is not only affecting society in general but also the discipline of counsel...

Content and Focus This editorial follows on from a previous editorial which focused upon ‘Writing for Publication’ in 2011. The purpose is to focus down a little further and to describe and discuss the peer review process within the world of academic publishing. This system has become a hallmark of quality and holds a great deal of sway when decidi...

WHILST AT this year’s Division of Counselling Psychology Conference in Leicester, I (Terry) was asked numerous questions about the process of publishing in Counselling Psychology Review. In fact throughout the year I regularly field questions about the publishing process more generally. In being transparent I should acknowledge that I myself am rel...

Content & Focus: This Special Edition of Counselling Psychology Review is focused on systematic reviews. Whilst considering the topic for the editorial to begin this Special Edition, we considered one overarching question to be of fundamental importance to attempt to tackle: What is a systematic review? We decided to have this as the focus of the e...

Aim: Research is frequently cited as core to counselling psychology. Yet we know little about where counselling psychologists publish their own findings. The present study aims to answer the following two research questions: (1) Where do UK-based counselling psychologists disseminate their research? (2) To what extent do counselling psychologists d...

Background: Counselling psychology training courses in the UK are required to focus upon at least two therapeutic approaches. Such a stipulation means that trainees need to become competent at navigating the complexities associated with therapeutic integration (e.g. tolerating its ambiguous nature), a factor that proves commensurate with the plural...

This guest editorial reflects upon the vast amount of research that is being undertaken by trainees in the therapeutic professions that never sees the light of day and considers the question: ‘where does all the research go?’ We begin by reflecting upon the relationship between therapeutic practitioners and research, before considering the reasons...

Aims: The therapeutic alliance is a concept that has received a great deal of attention within face-to-face counselling. Furthermore, links have been made between the creation of strong alliances and successful therapeutic outcomes. This study examines the therapeutic alliance when counselling services are offered online to young people. Method: Fi...

As mental health services for young people develop, the need for evaluation and audit to justify expenditure follows suit. Counselling is being provided in more and more schools and community settings across the country, and there is an increasing focus on evidence-based funding. Practice-based evidence has an important role to play in fulfilling t...

Text-based online therapy interventions have been used for more than a decade, but no comprehensive review of the effects on the alliance have been conducted. The authors have collected all of the empirical articles published up to December 2008 (n = 12) that examine the alliance of text-based online therapy. These studies involved a total of 574 c...

The central thesis of this chapter has three main components. Initially, the authors propose that online counselling can be of benefit to Kenyan children and young people in providing access to psychological help and support. Furthermore, specific technological support can be developed to provide opportunities for Kenyan children and young people t...

Aims: Counsellors are becoming commonplace within the support structures of secondary schools. To date, research findings from practice-based outcome studies suggest this is a positive move. There are, however, numerous limitations to this work, and this project aims to develop this existing body of literature. Method: Nine 13–15 year olds attendin...

Content and Focus When designing a qualitative research project the researcher is automatically faced with numerous decisions about methodological choice. The selection of any method needs to be made with adequate foundation and sound ethical consideration. This paper hopes to illustrate some of the challenges that researchers face when transformin...

‘Many psychologists… thought by turning their attention to their own consciousness to be able to explain what happened when we were thinking. Or they sought to attain the same end by asking another person a question, by means of which certain processes of thought would be excited, and then by questioning the person about the introspection he had ma...

Objective: This study aims to explore the experience of childless men and the desire for fatherhood. Background: There is little research exploring the desire for fatherhood, with most studies concentrating on couples in infertility treatment. Of those, the majority focus on the women’s experience, a factor that may reflect the gender stereotype an...

Objective: This study aims to explore the experience of childless men and the desire for fatherhood. Background: There is little research exploring the desire for fatherhood, with most studies concentrating on couples in infertility treatment. Of those, the majority focus on the women’s experience, a factor that may reflect the gender stereotype an...