John McLeod has held appointments in universities in the UK, New Zealand and Italy, and is currently Professor of Counselling at the Institute for Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy, Dublin, and Professor of Psychology, University of Oslo. He is committed to promoting the relevance of research as a means of informing therapy practice and improving the quality of services that are available to clients, and has received an award from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for his exceptional contribution to research. His writing has influenced a generation of trainees in the field of counselling, counselling psychology and psychotherapy, and his books are widely adopted on training programmes across the world.
The need to show how and why counselling works has led to an explosion of research activity, and a growing focus on research in counselling and psychotherapy teaching and practice. Yet this book, even now in its second edition, stands alone in addressing qualitative research in therapy. Leading expert, John McLeod helps readers through each stage of the research process, explaining techniques for gathering data, writing up the study and evaluating the findings. Each qualitative method is clearly described and critically assessed in terms of its own strengths and weaknesses. Examples from actual research studies are given to show how the methods work in practice. This new edition incorporates developments in qualitative research over the last ten years and includes many new chapters, covering: interpretative phenomenological analysisheuristic research and autoethnographyaction researchcase study methodsnarrative analysisFor all those involved in research - whether as part of academic study or in practice -this book will be essential reading. As an introduction to qualitative methods, it is the perfect course text for counselling and counselling psychology, and psychotherapy, and will also be of interest to those who provide counselling in other professional areas such as teaching, nursing and social work.
