Abstract

One criticism voiced by counsellors and psychotherapists is that research does not reflect either the culture or values of therapy. Researchers, on the other hand, accuse practitioners of not attending to their findings, and the implication is made that the latter engage in treatment processes that are ill-informed. These polarised understandings give rise to the situation where the client - and his or her development - fall into the practice-research gap. In more recent studies of counselling in primary care, an attempt has been made to offer new perspectives for interpreting and understanding findings, and the relative value - and limitations - of different research questions and methods. They provide just a few examples of how practitioner-researchers in the future may ask more precise questions, yet reflect on their findings from a broader set of viewpoints.