The European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy

www.europeanresearchjournal.com

A publication of the Anglo-Norwegian Collaboration

in association with the European Institute for Psychotherapeutic Studies (France and UK)

The European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy (EJQRP) is the initiative of the Anglo-Norwegian Collaboration involving the Scarborough Psychotherapy Training Institute, UK and the Norwegian Gestalt Institute in Oslo, Norway. In April 2008 day to day management of the journal will continue to reside with Ken Evans, Co-Senior Editor but  will be relocated in the European Institute for Psychotherapeutic Studies ( France and UK) www.euroips.com

The European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy is an online publication committed to encouraging and facilitating psychotherapists to engage in research relevant to their clinical practice, or closely related issues.

The journal Management Team operate a non profit making policy so that funds arising from sale of the journal may be allocated, in the form of a grant, to sponsor research projects that are subsequently published in the journal and meet the criteria published on the ‘How to Submit an Article’ page of this website.

We acknowledge and appreciate the encouragement, and financial sponsorship for the initial set up, we have received from the

• European Association for Gestalt Therapy
• European Association for Integrative Psychotherapy
• Norwegian Gestalt Institute
• Scarborough Psychotherapy Training Institute in the UK.

We also acknowledge the many therapists and psychotherapy training institutes who have expressed their support and enthusiasm for readable and clinically relevant research.

Why the need for an online research journal?

Over the past 25 years an increasing distance has emerged between clinical practice in the field and specialist researchers who are largely university based. (McLeod, J, 2001). Relatively few psychotherapists read research (Sargent, M. M, & Sechrest, L.B, & Cohen C.H, 1986) Consequently much contemporary research appears:

• excessively technical and difficult to read
• objectifies the client
• fails to describe in depth the experiences of the client
• fails to address the co-created and relational dimension of therapy
• gives little regard to the cultural, socio-political, ecological and spiritual dimension of human experience
• largely ignores issues of oppressive practice in psychotherapy and psychotherapy training
• generates suspicion among many therapists about research bias toward certain modalities

The European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy is committed to publishing readable and interesting research that:

• is relevant to clinical practice and/or closely related issues
• demystifies research
• describes the experiences and feelings of clients and therapists
• addresses the impact of societal and global change on the therapeutic endeavour
• encourages exploration of a range of dimensions to psychotherapy -physical, intra-psychic, inter-personal, cultural, ecological and spiritual
• challenges the manualisation of therapy
• critically reflects on oppressive practice in psychotherapy and psychotherapy training 
• further develops the notion of the psychotherapist as a reflexive practitioner
• supports other publications and projects that seek to further a research community within the profession

The journal is published online in order to be accessible to a wide readership across Europe. In this way distribution and storage costs are kept to a minimum and so the price of the journal is a moderate 15 Euros.

Download will be in publishable Acrobat PDF format and we respectfully request purchasers to cooperate with us and not copy and distribute the journal privately. The journal is a non-profit making enterprise and private distribution will reduce the income of the journal and will mean we have less money available to sponsor psychotherapist practitioners to undertake research projects. Thank you for your cooperation and we hope you will find the journal interesting, relevant and inspiring.