The Department sees the systematic reflection involved in the research process, as a core therapeutic competence for all practitioners. Students and staff are encouraged to follow Person-Centred research principles e.g., Mearns & McLeod (1984), which can apply to both qualitative and quantitative research and to be methodologically pluralist.

Student Research

The MSc. In Contemporary Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Applications, requires all students in their dissertation year, to design and carry out a a small scale practitioner research project, relevant to the theory and practice of person-centred psychotherapy or applications of the person-centred approach, beyond the therapy room.

A completed list of projects coming soon...

Current Tutor Team Research

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness Trial of Humanistic Counselling in

Schools: Individual RCT (ETHOS)

The Align Project: A Randomised Controlled Trial into the Efficacy of School Based Person-Centred Counselling

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of school-based person-centred counselling and builds on three previous pilot studies. The study is being conducted in three Secondary Schools in Inner City London. It is led by Metanoia’s Person-Centred Department in collaboration with BACP’s Research Department and with consultation from Professor Mick Cooper at University of Strathclyde.

For further information about the Align Project click on the link below or contact :

Peter Pearce Principal Investigator: Peter.pearce@metanoia.ac.uk or

Sarah Osman Align Research Co-ordinator: Sarah.osman@metanoia.ac.uk

A Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation of Counselling for Depression (CfD) an Evidence-Based, NICE recommended Person-Centred Therapy for Depression A mixed methods evaluation of the first year of CfD training, assessing trainees’ responses to the training programme, the Competency Framework and inviting participants experiences of its impact on their counselling practice. This evaluation was conducted as a collaboration between the BACP and the BACP Approved Providers of CfD training in the UK, Metanoia Institute, University of Keele and the University of York St. John.

More information coming soon...

‘A Model of Good Fit’ for School Based Counselling.

This is a collaborative Doctoral research project by Peter Pearce and Ros Sewell focused on, exploring the impact of ‘coming out’ of both the real and metaphoric counselling room and being more present in the culture of the school, in the search for the type of school counselling service, which might have most impact, for students and staff.

For a list of publications and conference presentations by person-centred staff please click here.