Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 15

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possible.10 Yet I cannot be sure that this is what I am achieving; evidence from counselling
research suggests that therapists are not always perceived by clients as being quite so nondirective or empowering as therapists believe themselves to be.11

Illustration 3: Boundary Issues

Boundaries, both actual, like the barbed-wire fence, and metaphorical, are put in
place to keep things in and to keep things out; they exist to keep us safe. A third, crucial
element of reducing harm is therefore maintaining a secure boundary between the research
interview and a counselling session, which the participant has not agreed to or prepared for.
Allowing the interview to develop into a counselling session would be an abuse of power and
could potentially cause harm. On two occasions when I became aware of this boundary
issue arising, I managed it, not necessarily perfectly or elegantly, but effectively, by bringing
it into awareness, and gently guiding the conversation back to the research:
RESEARCHER: Mmm, yeah…and I’m really aware just now of, of the – the sort of,
the boundary issue that I knew could be a problem of – if this was a counselling
session, maybe that’s something we would explore together, and I’m really conscious
that I’m listening to your story, not as a counsellor, but as a researcher,
HEATHER: Yeah,

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Carl Rogers, Client-centred therapy (London: Constable, 1951).
Mick Cooper, Essential research findings in counselling and psychotherapy (Chichester: Sage,
2008).
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