The VaLuE Study: Valuing Personal Experience of Mental Health Difficulties Amongst Clinical Psychologists and Therapists.

Abstract

The VaLuE study (Valuing Lived Experiences) consists of three papers. Firstly, a systematic review and thematic synthesis exploring how the personal experience of mental health (MH) difficulties influences the professional identity of those who provide therapy. Sixteen papers were critically appraised and reviewed leading to the identification of four themes: Occupying no-man’s land/ being both and neither; personhood; a bi-directional experience; and activism- being an agent of change. This analysis suggested dominant ‘us and them’ cultures within MH services prohibit professional identity integration for therapists with experience of MH difficulties and mandate a different identity trajectory for such clinicians. Findings were contextualised using both identity and social identity theory. The second paper is a constructivist grounded theory investigation into how trainees on Doctoral Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) programmes understand what it means to ‘value’ the lived/live experience of MH difficulties amongst trainees, as is the aim of the British Psychological Society. Analysis of 14 semi-structured interviews and two rounds of reviews, including a further three trainees, resulted in a relationally framed model, named the VaLuE model. The core concept of this was utilising, which was positioned as both the test of and reward for valuing the lived/live experiences of MH difficulties. A further six concepts were identified as necessary to achieving utilising, these were: taking accountability, accommodating, role modelling, trusting, embracing, and integrating. The model was contextualised within models of meaning making, social identity and social justice, before offering applications and future research directions. The final paper provides a summary of the implications from the proceeding papers for theory development, research, and clinical practice and an autoethnographic reflection of the lead author’s experience as a trainee clinical psychologist with personal experience of MH difficulties. Included in this paper are practical steps DClinPsy programmes can take to implement the VaLuE model.

Date of Award	26 Sept 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Bangor University
Supervisor	Lucy Piggin (Supervisor) & Michaela Swales (Supervisor)