Doing Counselling Research

`This is such an excellent and useful book that I was inspired to read through it and write about it immediately. John McLeod has provided the research manual that I (and my students) have been waiting for for years and it seemed important that other workers are made aware of it as soon as possible. The book's stated aim is to encourage critical thinking and reflection on the nature and purpose of counselling and psychotherapy . It achieves this by providing a comprehensive overview of possible research strategies, discussing the merits and pitfalls of the various approaches. Don't allow yourself to be put off by the counselling in the title of the book - if you are doing (or about to do) research into any aspect of the process and outcome of psychotherapy you will find this book of great help... Chapters cover quantitative methods, single case design and qualitative methods (including the best summary guide to grounded theory methodology I have ever seen). The text is interspersed with boxes containing main points and the clear layout and writing style make the text easily accessible to research phobics and fanatics alike. Where this book particularly excels is in that it provides much more than a good how to do it manual. The text includes epistemological discussions of the issues around therapy research and the reader is encouraged to consider critically the assumptions underlying the variety of approaches they may take. The book will be particularly useful for practitioners who wish to use research to develop their services and ought to become a standard text on counselling, psychology and psychotherapy postgraduate courses... Perhaps the best endorsement for the book is that, having passed it around the research department today, four of my colleagues have already said they intend to buy it and I will certainly be recommending copies to my research assistants, students and anyone else who comes to me for research advice' - Therapeutic Communities, The International Journal for Therapeutic and Supportive Organizations

`This book would be very helpful for counsellors in training who have to prepare a dissertation based on an objective analysis of some aspect of counselling... particularly useful for students studying research at an academic level, although it will also be particularly valuable for counsellors who wish to undertake rather more serious research on, or evaluation of, their work. The coverage of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research is particularly relevant to the counselling sphere... likely to effectively serve individual counsellors in training as a course text... [this] well-written book contributes to fostering an increasing recognition of the value and necessity of research and evaluation in counselling [and] goes beyond simply raising awareness to playing a part in making research skills accessible and... can contribute to the establishment of the ongoing endeavour to objectively assess the quality of the service clients are offered, so helping counsellors improve and develop the practice of counselling' - Counselling, The Journal of the British Association for Counselling

`This succinctly written book has a multiprofessional appeal and achieves its aim of acting as a bridge between research methodology and counselling practice... McLeod succeeds in summarizing what might be traditionally considered a dry subject in a manner which whets the reader's appetite and furnishes him or her with a framework of methods and findings of the many studies which have explored what is and is not effective in the counselling relationship. It may be true that therapists find reading research articles or doing research the least useful source of information about psychotherapy, yet it is to be hoped that books such as this will redress the balance as it becomes increasingly important, in the internal market, to be clear about the usefulness of therapeutic practices' - Clinical Psychology Forum

`[This] book guides us through the research process in a comprehensible way, moving from an explanation of why research should be important for counsellors, through the ins-and-outs of doing a literature search, the intricacies of the research design process, the nature of quantitative and qualitative methodology, current issues related to outcome and process research, and ethical considerations, to bring us... to some interesting conclusions and comments on future counselling research directions... the whole topic is carefully related to the process of counselling. The number of research studies referenced is very impressive... A very helpful feature is the use of boxes containing summary material from the chapters. These are clear, readily understandable and very practical... very readable... yields a wealth of research information and provides an excellent and comprehensive introduction to doing counselling research' - British Journal of Guidance and Counselling

`This book is equally relevant to doing psychotherapy research... There are good chapters on reading the literature, managing the research process, using quantitative methods, using rating scales and qualitative methods, single case studies, outcome and process in research, ethical questions and so forth. The book ends with a sensitive discussion of the issues... This is a book I would recommend to any course which deals with research. It is up to date and sophisticated, and a good guide for the student' - Self & Society