“I just can’t, I am frightened for my safety, I don’t know how to work with her” Practitioners’ experiences of client violence and recommendations for future practice

To what extent is the therapist-client relationship damaged following client perpetuated violence and what steps can we take to diminish its impact? Much of the information we have on client violence comes from multiple mental health disciplines in the US and the UK over the last 20-30 years and has formed a useful, though sometimes dated and sporadic, quantitative baseline to delineate a range of issues. However, there is limited systematic research on how practitioner psychologists process the violence in the course of their everyday practice and how this impacts the therapist-client dynamic. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), we explored seven therapists’ experiences of client violence across a range of work sites – acute psychiatric hospital wards, forensic hospital wards and community mental health teams. Three main themes were documented: processing the moment-to-moment experience of client violence; professional vulnerabilities and needs as a result of client violence; and the ruptured therapeutic relationship. Strategies for supporting practicing psychologists and providing continuing professional care for clients include challenging self-doubt and re-energizing professional competencies as well as repairing ourselves and repairing the therapeutic relationship. Recommendations for credentialing and regulatory bodies in relation to client violence are also highlighted.

Music teacher biography and its impact on teaching practice

This paper describes research carried out as part of a wider doctoral study on ‘the biography of music teachers, their understanding of musicality and the implications for secondary music education’. Music teachers will come from a range of diverse backgrounds, though research data would suggest that most seem to have been educated as ‘classical’ music performers which will have an affect on what they perceive to be central competencies in the development of young musicians. In turn, this will determine, to some extent, what is taught and learned in the secondary music classroom. This study explores the impact of the biography of secondary music teachers as they seek to develop the musicianship of their pupils and present the activities in which the young people will be expected to participate. A mixed methods approach has been taken, including surveys, observation and interviews. Surveys amongst a sample of experienced and trainee teachers have produced a range of quantitative data on respondents’ experience of and values related to music education; whilst qualitative data in the form of lesson observation notes and transcription of semi-structured interviews have been the result of working with a small sub-set of participants. The outcomes of study have suggested a clear link between biography and classroom practice but that there are also other potential tensions which arise, such as in the subject knowledge development of practitioners as they move from musician to teacher. Implications for a variety of stakeholders in secondary music education include a consideration of the development of subject knowledge together with potential review of national and local education policy, the nature of undergraduate music study and the ‘shape’ of initial teacher training in England.

Positive psychology – The second wave

It is nearly twenty years since Martin Seligman used his 1998 American Psychological Association presidential address to inaugurate the notion of ‘positive psychology.’ The rationale for its creation was Seligman’s contention that psychology had hitherto tended to focus mainly on what is wrong with people, on dysfunction, disorder and distress. There were of course pockets of scholarship that held a candle for human potential and excellence, like humanistic psychology. Nevertheless, on the whole, he argued that concepts such as happiness did not attract much attention or credibility in mainstream psychology. Emerging to redress this lacuna, positive psychology soon became a fertile new paradigm, encompassing research into a panoply of processes and qualities that could be deemed ‘positive,’ from overarching constructs such as flourishing, to more specific concepts like hope.

Using Action Research to Develop My Solution-Focused Practice in Collaboration with Year 6 And 7 Pupils When Discussing Their Behavioural Self-Regulation at School

This action research study aimed to develop the researcher's use of solutionfocused techniques when working with Year 6 and 7 pupils’ self-regulation. A systematic literature review highlighted an evidence base that demonstrated the efficacy of solution-focused methods when working with this population. The researcher’s intention was to add to the body of Educational Psychology practice-based evidence in this area. The researcher recruited eight participants from primary and secondary school provisions. Solution-focused techniques were systematically trialled in partnership with the pupils and were modified through an action research cycle. Semistructured interviewing provided participants the opportunity to critically evaluate the researcher’s solution-focused practice. Thematic Analysis was used to assess feedback in order to adapt the delivery of solution-focused techniques. Developments to practice explored within this study included modifications to the use of the six core components of Solution Focused Brief Therapy. Adaptations have the potential to inform the use of these solution-focused approaches with other educational practitioners.

My Ideal School: A Personal Construct Psychology Approach to Understanding the School Constructs of Children Described as Anxious

This research explores the school constructs of children described as anxious. Little research exists that looks at understanding children’s school-related anxiety through the lens of Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). This qualitative research design includes semi-structured interviews that followed a PCP theoretical framework. The interviews were carried out with five children aged between 7 and 11, who attended state schools in Malta, and who were experiencing school-related anxiety. Participants were asked to comment and produce drawings about the kind of school they would like to attend (their ideal school), and the kind of school they would not like to attend. The children’s constructs were organised according to whether they related to adults in school, their peers, the school and classroom environment, and the participants themselves in each of these two imaginary schools. Participants were also asked to think of how the school they currently attend can become more like their ideal school. Findings indicate the importance of relationships between teachers and pupils, relationships amongst pupils themselves, a positive learning environment within the classroom and the belongingness to a common value system and school ethos to which anxious children can relate. This research aims to shed light on the responsibility of professionals working with children with school-related anxiety to look beyond within-child factors and understand possible stressors in the child’s environment as potentially contributing to heightening their anxiety.