The quality of the therapy relationship is one of the strongest predictors of outcomes in counselling and psychotherapy.
Our research in this area focuses on aspects of the therapy relationship that shape, and help to improve, the process and outcomes of counselling and psychotherapy; along with clients’ and therapists’ experiences of the therapy relationship. Areas of enquiry that we specialise in, and in which we welcome opportunities for students and for further collaboration, are:
- Client preferences (Click here for further details)
- Relational depth
- Goal-oriented practices
- Therapy relationship with young people
- Relational approaches to therapy: humanistic, person-centred, existential
- Measurement of relationship variables in therapy
- Attachment and the therapy relationship
- Therapy endings
- The real relationship and working alliance
- Transference and countertransference
Current Projects
- Development and application of the Cooper–Norcross Inventory of Preferences (C-NIP) (see C-NIP site)
- Development and testing of a young person’s preference measure for therapy
- Exploring the relationship between preferences and outcomes
- Exploring the relationship between relational depth and outcomes
- Development and evaluation of goal-oriented practices in therapy with adults and young people
- Assessing clients’ experiences of using routine outcome measures (ROM) in therapy
Main Contact
Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology
Staff
- Robert Allan, Senior Lecturer in Psychology
- Rafaello Antonino, Senior Lecturer in Counselling Psychology
- Savin Bapir-Tardy, Senior Lecturer in Counselling Psychology
- Avantika Bhatia, Senior Lecturer in Psychology
- Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology
- Rachel Cronin, Lecturer in Play Therapy
- Elise Cuschieri, Senior Lecturer
- James Davies, Reader in Psychology
- Tony Evans, Principal Lecturer in Counselling Psychology
- Catherine Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Counselling Psychology
- Angela Loulopoulou, Principal Lecturer in Counselling Psychology
- Julie McCann, Lecturer in Play Therapy
- John Rae, Reader in Psychology
- Gella Richards, Senior Lecturer in Counselling Psychology
Research Students
- Sally Ann Adams, PsychD Counselling Psychology
- Charlie Jackson, PhD
- Oleksandr Lugovyi, PhD
- Monna Shahna, PsychD Counselling Psychology
- Betul Tatar, PsychD Counselling Psychology
- Charlotte Zamani, PsychD Counselling Psychology
Key Publications
- Anderson, R., Cooper, M., & Steffen, E. M. (2023). Cancer patients’ experiences of moments of relational depth during psychological therapy:a qualitative study. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 41(6), 704-720.
- Bhatia, A., & Gelso, C.J. (2018) Therapists’ perspective on the therapeutic relationship: Examining a tripartite model. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 31, 271-293.
- Bhatia, A., & Gelso, C. J. (2017). The termination phase: Therapists’ perspective on the therapeutic relationship and outcome. Psychotherapy, 54, 76-87.
- Cooper, M., Di Malta, G., Knox, S., Oddli, H. W., & Swift, J. K. (2023). Patient perspectives on working with preferences in psychotherapy: A consensual qualitative research study. Psychotherapy Research, 33(8), 1117-1131.
- Cooper, M., Stafford, M. R., Saxon, D., Beecham, J., Bonin, E.-M., Barkham, M., Bower, P., Cromarty, K., Duncan, C., Pearce, P., Rameswari, T., & Ryan, G. (2021). Humanistic counselling plus pastoral care as usual versus pastoral care as usual for the treatment of psychological distress in adolescents in UK state schools (ETHOS): a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 5(3), 178-189.
- Cooper, M., & Xu, D. (2023). The Goals Form: Reliability, validity, and clinical utility of an idiographic goal-focused measure for routine outcome monitoring in psychotherapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 79(3), 641-666.
- Di Malta, G., Cooper, M., Bond, J., Raymond-Barker, B., Oza, M., & Pauli, R. (2024). The Patient-Perceived Helpfulness of Measures Scale: Development and validation of a scale to assess the helpfulness of using measures in psychological treatment. Assessment, 31(5), 994-1010.
- Řiháček, T., Cooper, M., Cígler, H., She, Z., Di Malta, G., & Norcross, J. C. (2024). The Cooper-Norcross Inventory of Preferences: Measurement invariance across & international datasets and languages. Psychotherapy Research, 34, 804-816.
- Swift, J. K., Callahan, J. L., Cooper, M., & Parkin, S. R. (2018). The impact of accommodation client preferences in psychotherapy: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(11), 1924-1937.
Key Grants
- 2019 British Psychological Society, Division of Counselling Psychology, Accommodation of client preferences in pluralistic therapy, £9.3k.
- 2016 Economic and Social Research Council (ESCR), Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness Trial of Humanistic cOunselling in Schools: Individual RCT (ETHOS), £859k.
- 2012 Chief Scientist Office, Scotland. Counselling versus low intensity CBT for low mood, £180k.