Understand what matters most to you in psychotherapy and counselling

Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton, London
Mick is Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton, London, and a psychotherapist, supervisor, and trainer. Mick is co-founder of the pluralistic approach to therapy, which places shared decision making at the heart of therapeutic practice. Mick is co-author, with John Norcross, of Personalizing Psychotherapy: Assessing and Accommodating Patient Preferences (APA, 2021), and a range of other books on person-centred, humanistic, and relational approaches to counselling and psychotherapy. Mick is a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the Academy of Social Sciences. In recent work, Mick has been exploring the contribution that counselling theory and practice can make to wider social change and justice: Psychology at the Heart of Social Change: Towards a Progressive Vision for Society (Bristol University, 2023).

An internationally recognised expert on psychotherapy, John C. Norcross, PhD, ABPP, is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Scranton, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University, and a board-certified clinical psychologist. Author of more than 400 scholarly publications, Dr. Norcross has co-written or edited 22 books, most of them in multiple editions. He also published the acclaimed self-help books, Changeology and Changing for Good (with Prochaska & DiClemente). Dr. Norcross maintained a part-time practice of clinical psychology for 35 years but now restricts himself to training and supervision. Dr. Norcross has been elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA) Society of Clinical Psychology, the APA Division of Psychotherapy, the International Society of Clinical Psychology, and the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration. He edited the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session for a decade and has been on the editorial boards of a dozen journals. A Fellow of 10 professional associations, he has been honored with APA’s Distinguished Career Contributions to Education & Training Award, the Pennsylvania Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation, the Rosalee Weiss Award from the American Psychological Foundation, and election to the National Academies of Practice.

Charlotte is a therapist for young people. She is a member of the development project team for the young person’s therapy preference measure, U-PIC. Charlotte’s doctoral thesis looks at what it means for young people to choose preferences in therapy, including piloting the U-PIC measure in young people’s therapy. Charlotte is a committee member of the BPS’s Community Psychology section and is an active member in research groups Client Preferences in Psychological Therapies, and Pluralistic Research.

Andrea holds a PhD focused on the impact of digital sexual practices on the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. Before joining BACP, Andrea held research positions across several third-sector organisations and universities, leading and supporting predominantly child-centred studies within the fields of sociology, psychology, victimology and public health.

Public Involvement Officer, The McPin Foundation
I’m passionate about youth empowerment and making sure young people’s voices can meaningfully shape the systems and services that affect them. I’m especially interested in community-based support for youth wellbeing and I care about communicating with young people in ways that are relevant, inclusive and empowering!

Emma works at the mental health research charity, the McPin Foundation. McPin exists to transform mental health research by involving people with lived experience of mental health issues to shape and inform research and ensure it is relevant for those that the research intends to impact, people with mental health issues. Emma led and co-ordinated the involvement of young people with lived experience on the U-PIC study. This was done by forming a Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) of young people with lived experience of mental health issues and experiences of counselling and therapy. Along with Eva, the team and the YPAG, Emma embedded the involvement of young people in creating the U-PIC measure through meetings, written work, polls and feedback to design and shape the U-PIC measure and ensure it was understood, shaped and helpful for young people.

Gina Di Malta is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist and Senior Lecturer at The Open University, with a background in clinical practice, teaching, and psychotherapy research. Her work focuses on the development and evaluation of psychotherapy scales that assess patient preferences and relational processes in therapy, with the aim of improving patient-centred measurement and clinical decision-making.

Tomáš Řiháček, Ph.D., is a psychologist and psychotherapist. He is a Professor at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, where he teaches several courses focused on research and methodology. Tomáš has published over 100 articles and his research interests include psychotherapist development, psychotherapy integration, psychosomatics, process and outcome monitoring, psychotherapy preferences, and the negative effects of psychotherapy.

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Nanjing University
Zhuang is a psychotherapist specializing in humanistic psychotherapy, with over ten years of clinical experience. His primary research areas include: (1) evidence-based practice in psychotherapy, with a particular focus on routine outcome monitoring and client preferences; and (2) psychotherapy process and outcome research. His work emphasises the integration of research, practice, and training, aiming to apply cutting-edge interventions to enhance psychotherapy effectiveness and reduce client dropout.