Trainee Counselling Psychologists on Regent’s DPsych, a programme accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), have scooped the majority of research poster prizes at the BPS Division of Counselling Psychology’s (DCoP) annual national conference held in July 2021.
Huge congratulations to Keri Delport, Mayya Gimalova, and Beth Anfilogoff!
Keri Delport was awarded Judges' First Prize and Joint Delegates' Third Prize for her research poster entitled Listening beyond words: How can the communication, sensory and relational experiences of non-speaking autistic adults guide psychotherapeutic practice?
She also won the DCoP trainee prize in 2020 for an early output from her research. Keri commented: ‘I am most excited by the engagement of other practitioners and counselling psychologists with my research and hoping this engagement will provoke and support change in the way non-speaking individuals are supported within our mental health system.’
Beth Anfilogoff was awarded Joint Delegates' Third Prize for her research poster entitled Trapped at the top: The experiences and challenges of extreme affluence. Her project involved an exploration of an area sometimes considered a blind spot for practitioners in independent practice. Beth commented: ‘It was lovely to receive this recognition and to have the opportunity to present my research. I enjoyed my peers’ questions and reflections about the unexpected ways extreme wealth might impact identity exploration for young people.’
Mayya Gimalova was awarded Judges' Third Prize for her research poster entitled An interpretive phenomenological analysis of how young climate activists experience continual exposure to information about climate change. She also took part in a panel in a highly successful conference strand on the psychological impacts of climate change. Mayya commented: ‘I was grateful to be a part of the DCoP conference this year where there was space to reflect on the important issue of climate change from a counselling psychology perspective. I was humbled that my research poster was awarded a prize.’
Regent’s DPsych Programme Director, Professor Isabel Henton, and the DPsych team are very proud of the research in practitioner psychology developing among the DPsych’s cohort of 30+ doctoral projects. Professor Henton commented: ‘All three of these projects show leadership, pushing at the edges of what practitioner psychologists know and do, and challenging orthodoxies in practitioner psychology at individual and institutional levels.’ Regent’s DPsych Research Lead, Dr Rosemary Lodge commented: ‘These are all exciting and highly relevant pieces of research that embody the discipline's social justice agenda.’
Find out more about Regent’s DPsych Counselling Psychology programme here.