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My Experience as a Research Student: Elisavet Tapini

CPsychol, MBACP

Chartered Counselling Psychologist    

Being asked to write this piece brought a smile to my face.  I always considered myself to be research oriented and the years I was training at Regent’s College provided me with the opportunity to develop my research potential.

I registered on an MA in Counselling Psychology course, which at the time led to Chartered status with the British Psychological Society. Now it is only Doctorate level training that leads to chartered status. Training as a counselling psychologist consists of many diverse and demanding tasks.

The importance of Research

Doing research is one of them, which if I may say, is frequently not talked about. Students are absorbed with accumulating placement hours, coping with various demands, dealing with their own issues in therapy and with foreseeing the ‘exit’ of a lengthy training. Doing research can be quite isolating, as this usually takes place at the end of the training and it does not involve much interaction with other trainees. It is an introspective process, a dialogue with oneself - an experience to grow with.

Having always been research-oriented, I can truly say that researching for my dissertation and then writing up was one of the most enjoyable (yet extremely stressful!) parts of my training as a counselling psychologist.

This is not to say it was easy, but challenges are part of my character. I find true satisfaction in achieving difficult but rewarding tasks and certainly, completing my dissertation in a stimulating environment such that of Regent’s was such a task.

Even before starting my Masters, I had developed an interest in sociology and philosophy, something that affected my future choices. Choosing to train at Regent’s College provided me with strong philosophical foundations and a good understanding of qualitative methods.

Qualitative Research

I received extensive training in qualitative research as part of my MA/ Post-MA and researched on the psychology of skilled migration and its relevance to clinical practice. Common to qualitative research, this study emerged out of personal interest, being a voluntary expatriate myself.

My research interests were always in the broader field of cross-cultural psychology and clinical practice, as this is part of my own personal and professional identity. As with any piece of research, I had to find something that triggered me. When doing qualitative research, this is even more important, as there is no way of being truly reflexive if one is not interested in the subject matter.

Hence, it is common for counselling psychology or psychotherapy trainees to research on the experience of the practitioner in the therapy room. For me however, this was not enough. For sure it was still relevant to my experience but there was another part of me that was frequently silent and needed a voice.

There were so many of my classmates researching the therapist’s experience that I found it even more challenging to do something different.  I started thinking of the other end of the spectrum. Not necessarily a clinical trial but researching on a social group whose members can be potential clients.

My ‘Migrant Self’

My ‘migrant self’ had been a therapy client before becoming a practitioner. And I strongly remembered the frustration of having to explain something twice, the untranslatable Greek expressions hanging in the therapy room, my fear of offending my therapist if I did not like things in his country.  And I equally remembered how liberating it was at other times to go into different linguistic paths because of doing therapy in a different language, of freeing myself from my Greek ‘shoulds’. Suddenly I had an insight for research.

Skilled migrants, to whom issues of identity and belonging are a part of their everyday experience was such a social group of potential clients. Apart from making a unique contribution in my field, I wanted to do research on something that is widely applicable, not only to counselling and psychotherapy but also to the human condition as a whole in a cosmopolitan world. 

The diversity of research interests of SPCP staff allowed me to do that. Even before choosing my topic, the integrative and non-doctrinaire attitude of the school was evident in lectures, seminars and conferences advertised and the willingness of staff members to discuss ideas with students.

Writing this piece reminded me of things I had forgotten; how open various lecturers were to essay topics during my early stages of training, the willingness of staff members for informal chats, the abundance of diverse information offered, whether in reading lists or information found on the announcement boards of the third floor. It was the non-doctrinnaire environment that allowed me to find a research topic that spoke truly to my heart. I was given the freedom to think outside the box.

I also remember writing to Dr Greg Madison asking him to be my supervisor. Dr Madison has worked extensively on what he termed existential migration and I was hoping that he would have the time to supervise my dissertation.

I was thrilled when he said yes, as it was really important for me to have someone knowledgeable on the subject-matter. From the beginning, I felt that I was encouraged to develop my skills and to adopt a critical stance.

Support and Guidance

There was support and guidance but also challenging, yet no authoritarian attitude from my supervisor. The morale of the school was reflected in this, as I felt that I was approached as a colleague rather than a student.

This deepened my passion about what I was doing. I received support not only during meetings but also via e-mails and detailed feedback. I was also encouraged to develop my own methodology, a combination of different phenomenological methods, which made me feel that this is my project, my creation.

Of course I had to stay open to feedback and suggestions but feeling respect and trust in my abilities made the whole research journey one to remember.

Creating this particular research method required lots of reading and numerous discussions with Dr Madison, but I felt I had strong foundations on qualitative methods because of my whole training at SPCP.

Apart from the methodology seminar that I had attended, it was the philosophical foundations and the non-dogmatic stance of the school that facilitated my thinking in this process. As in the rest of my training, more so in my research supervision, it was extremely important to me that I felt I had both the independence and the support to challenge my own thinking and explore new ideas.

Critical thinking, Curiosity and Challenge

I already had a passion about research and my experience as a research student at SPCP just nourished my passion further. Critical thinking, curiosity and challenge. These foundations allowed me to apply for funding outside the school and expand my research after completing my Master’s degree.

I received a full PhD studentship with the University of Brighton and I am currently expanding my research. I have already submitted an article co-authored with Dr Madison, based on my MA research, and I am working on another one specific to my hybrid phenomenological method.

I have started teaching at the SPCP Foundation course and I feel that my potential is developing. It is extremely challenging at times, juggling with PhD research, teaching and private practice but, as I said at the beginning of this article, challenging matches my character.

The experience of a research student with SPCP made this response to challenge not just a default mechanism but also a personal and professional identity project that yet continues.