Research measuring evidence of co-dependency in a sample of counselling and psychotherapy students

Abstract

This research paper is an examination of evidence of co-dependency in a sample of 3rd and 4th year students of counselling and psychotherapy on the Dublin Business School degree programme. The paper includes a review of literature on the topic of co-dependency. It also examines previous research into evidence of co-dependency in other helping professions (for example nursing) and more specifically, research into evidence of co-dependency in counsellors and psychotherapists. The research was conducted by completion of the self-report Spann, Fischer & Crawford Co-Dependency Scale (SF CDS) by a sample of 30 students. The results of the research demonstrated co-dependency characteristic levels which were in line with those of the random samples of students from the original research by Spann, Fischer and Crawford (1991). The conclusion drawn is that, although the research did not uncover evidence of higher mean levels of co-dependency in the counselling and psychotherapy student sample, it did raise some useful observations and discussion points. Investigation of these aspects may prove beneficial to the field of counselling and psychotherapy training.