Creating composites as evidence based research into an approach to counselling therapy (the experience of the propeller model approach)

Abstract

As a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Sofia University in Bulgaria, who is a practicing Counselling Therapist with the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, it has been a challenging and interesting experience introducing and utilizing one’s own therapeutic approach in my own practice. The Propeller Approach to psychotherapy and counselling is an approach that was developed from a Philosophy Doctoral dissertation which aims to be holistic, and can be considered an Existentialist, Gestalt or even Daseinanalytic approach that essentially aims to increase a client’s awareness of themselves. In order to provide an evidence-based backing for the Propeller Approach and understand the experience that clients have had with the approach a qualitative approach to research was implemented in order to receive feedback from five participants through semi-structured interviews after having received ethical approval from the Irish College of Humanities and Applied Science which is the college of which I am Sessional Lecturer. After receiving the data from the participants, the data was transcribed in order to apply thematic analysis to the data. In order to maintain anonymity but also to present the information in a creative and interesting manner, a composite of the data was created in order to fictionalize the data and increase the flow of the presentation of the information received. The use of thematic analysis also led to thematic mapping in order to code and identify the themes derived from the data which the composite contributed to. The project shows not only the potential of a new therapeutic approach to counselling therapy with the Propeller Model, but how to render it as an evidence-based effective approach through applied research methods whilst demonstrating the value that composites can have within thematic analysis.