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Counselling Tutor Podcast

Counselling Tutor Podcast

By: Ken Kelly and Rory Lees-Oakes
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CPD, supervision and specialist training for counsellors Education
Episodes
  • 388 – The Digital Counselling Room

    388 – The Digital Counselling Room
    Oct 17 2026
    The Ross Neurodiversity Integration Framework - Managing Emotional Overload in Counselling Training In Episode 388 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly take us through this week's three topics: Firstly, in 'Ethical, Sustainable Practice', they explore the digital counselling room - confidentiality and data security in a connected, digital world. Then in 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Bianca Marie Ross about the Ross Neurodiversity Integration Framework - bridging the gap between insight in therapy and real-world change for neurodivergent clients. And finally, in 'Student Services', Rory and Ken discuss managing emotional overload in counselling training - the emotional journey of personal development and how to stay grounded through it. The Digital Counselling Room [starts at 03:28 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken explore confidentiality in the digital counselling room - what it now means in a connected age, and the practical steps practitioners can take to protect client information across the many places it is stored. Key points discussed include: Where setting up a counselling room once meant checking the walls, windows and a locked filing cabinet, client information now lives across email, phones, text messages, calendars, notes, invoices, video platforms, cloud backups and AI transcription tools. A useful exercise is to carry out a digital audit of your practice, imagining following a client through each of your digital systems to see everywhere their information is held. Every practitioner needs a catastrophe plan for what happens if a phone, tablet or laptop is lost, stolen or broken, including how client records would still be accessed and how a device could be wiped. Strong passwords, two-factor or multi-factor authentication, automatic screen locks, and awareness of who else can access a shared family device are straightforward ways to reduce the risk of a breach. Encryption matters because it means that even if data is accessed, it cannot be read without the key, and the hosts note that most breaches come from everyday human error rather than hackers. Thought should be given to email subject lines and lock-screen notifications, to what clients are told in the contract about how you communicate, and to practice point 55 of the new BACP ethical framework on protecting client information. The Ross Neurodiversity Integration Framework [starts at 26:28 mins] In this week's 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Bianca Marie Ross about the Ross Neurodiversity Integration Framework and her book on bridging the gap between insight in therapy and real-world change for neurodivergent clients. Key points from this conversation include: Bianca describes an integration gap, the space between what a client understands about themselves in therapy and what they can actually put into practice in everyday life. The framework grew from a neurodivergent client who reached a place of insight after more than a year of work but felt nothing had actually changed, prompting Bianca to add elements of coaching to support real-world change. The RNIF is a nine-pillar, circular structure that sits on top of a practitioner's existing modality and training, allowing clients to return to the centre and revisit earlier pillars as their capacity changes. A core value of the framework is context before character, looking at what is getting in a client's way rather than assuming they are unmotivated, resistant or not trying hard enough. Many difficulties come from reduced capacity, masking, executive functioning demands and sensory overload, so the problem is often the environment rather than the person. The model extends counselling boundaries in structured ways with workbook templates, plans for relapse without shame, and support such as advocating alongside clients, so that a therapy ending is not the same as a support ending. Managing Emotional Overload in Counselling Training [starts at 52:09 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken discuss the emotional overload that can arise during counselling training and the strategies that help students stay grounded through the personal development journey. Key points include: The biggest change in training is to the self, and for some students that process can feel overwhelming or even life-changing as they delve deeply into their own material. Emotional overload is to be expected and should be normalised, as it affects many trainees even though it does not happen to everyone, and it can become a powerful moment of growth. Training can affect life outside the course, including relationships, friendships and work, as students change and grow while those around them may not. Both hosts share how their own training led them to leave careers that no longer felt congruent with their true selves, reassuring listeners that such upheaval is a common part of becoming. Helpful strategies include diversifying your identity beyond counselling, building ...
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  • 387 – Choosing a Counselling Supervisor: What Changes in 2026

    387 – Choosing a Counselling Supervisor: What Changes in 2026
    Oct 10 2026
    Love in the Therapy Room – Literature Reviews and Making Sense of Counselling Research In Episode 387 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly take us through this week's three topics: Firstly, in 'Ethical, Sustainable Practice', they explore choosing a counselling supervisor - what is changing under the 2026 BACP Ethical Framework, and how supervision and competence fit into the new requirements. Then in 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Joseph Harney about love in the therapy room - what therapeutic love is, and how to work with it ethically. And finally, in 'Student Services', Rory and Ken discuss literature reviews - how to make sense of counselling research. Choosing a Counselling Supervisor: What Changes in 2026 [starts at 03:00 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken explore choosing a counselling supervisor under the revised BACP Ethical Framework, coming into force in November 2026, and what practitioners now need to confirm about their supervisor. Key points discussed include: The revised framework, in force from 3 November 2026, keeps the long-standing requirement for adequate supervision but adds that practitioners must confirm their supervisor has the necessary qualifications, experience and competence under the BACP supervision framework. This is described as a prescriptive core responsibility rather than a "would be nice", marking a significant step change from the earlier framework. Supervision is treated as a distinct role from being a therapist, with its own theory, ethics, processes and competencies set out in the BACP supervision competence framework. Specialist areas of practice such as working with children and young people, trauma, neurodivergence, and online and telephone working may call for a supervisor with matching competence in that area. A supervisor does not need to be an expert in everything, but should recognise the limits of their competence and know when additional consultation, CPD or specialist supervision is needed. The responsibility for confirming a supervisor's qualifications sits with the practitioner, and a supervisor does not have to be a member of the BACP as long as they have trained within a recognised framework. Love in the Therapy Room [starts at 28:41 mins] In this week's 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Joseph Harney about therapeutic love, what it means, and how therapists can recognise and work with it in an ethical, helpful and culturally attuned way. Key points from this conversation include: Joseph offers a working definition of therapeutic love as strong, emergent or enduring positive feelings for clients that go beyond routine care. Drawing on Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving, he separates the forms of love that are ethically off limits, such as sexual, erotic or romantic feelings, from those that remain appropriate, including humanistic, spiritual and parental forms. Rory offers the metaphor of a "heater of love", where the warmth a therapist brings can be turned up or down depending on the client's attachment style and where they are in the arc of therapy. Joseph links this to the pluralistic idea of the "authentic chameleon", attributed to Lazarus, where the therapist responds genuinely to the client's needs in the moment. On whether a therapist should ever tell a client they love them, Joseph concludes that for the most part the answer is no, because of the risk of misunderstanding and blurred ethical boundaries. Both agree that feelings of therapeutic love are better explored through countertransference and supervision than expressed directly to the client. Literature Reviews and Making Sense of Counselling Research [starts at 53:53 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken discuss literature reviews and why engaging with research is such an important part of a developing profession. Key points include: A literature review is described as having a conversation with existing research before adding your own voice, asking what we already know, how we know it, and what still needs exploring. It helps identify important theories and debates, compare findings, evaluate the strengths and limitations of existing research, spot gaps in knowledge, and show why a research question is worth investigating. The depth and scale of research grows with the level of study, from the small research project of a diploma through to the deeper work of a degree, master's or PhD. Research is an ongoing, evolving conversation, where published findings are critiqued, defended and built upon rather than treated as the final word. Critique is presented as what makes academia robust, with examples of past research being pulled apart over small or biased samples and even fabricated data. A useful question when weighing any research is who funded it and what their motivation might have been, illustrated by mid-century research promoting cigarettes. Struggling with a counselling literature review? Professor Mick Cooper shares the correct way...
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  • 386 – Cyber Security for Counsellors

    386 – Cyber Security for Counsellors
    Oct 3 2026
    Counselling People Living with Dementia - Bringing Counselling Theory and the Client Together In Episode 386 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, your hosts Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly take us through this week's three topics: Firstly, in 'Ethical, Sustainable Practice', they explore cyber security for counsellors — what happens if your counselling practice is hacked, and the practical steps that protect you, your clients, and your reputation. Then in 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Danuta Lipinska about counselling people living with dementia - and how to offer sensitive, ethical, person-centred support. And finally, in 'Student Services', Rory and Ken discuss how to bring counselling theory and the client together - and why the work happens in reflection, not in the room. Cyber Security for Counsellors [starts at 03:28 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken explore cyber security for counsellors — the growing risk of cyberattacks and data breaches, and the practical measures that help protect a practice. Key points discussed include: Cyberattacks are now a frequent reality rather than a rare event, with Rory noting recent breaches affecting a nearby airport, a police database, and health records. The 2020 breach of the Finnish psychotherapy company Vastaamo saw the therapy notes of around 33,000 clients accessed, with the attacker later contacting clients directly, and the BBC reporting that at least one person took their own life in a case linked to it. Phishing emails, compromised accounts, and simply sending confidential information to the wrong person are common ways that client data is exposed, so the hosts advise a habit of stopping and thinking before clicking any link. Because counsellors are data controllers under UK GDPR, the liability for a client's data can remain with the practitioner even when a third-party app or service is the one that is breached. Cyber insurance is separate from professional indemnity insurance, so it is worth checking a policy carefully and asking the insurer to run through what would be covered if a breach occurred. Sensible safeguards include strong and unique passwords, multi-factor authentication, keeping devices and software up to date, secure cloud storage, and regular backups, and the accompanying handout offers a checklist to take to supervision. Counselling People Living with Dementia [starts at 33:59 mins] In this week's 'Practice Matters', Rory speaks with Danuta Lipinska about counselling people living with dementia and how therapists can move beyond fear to offer respectful, meaningful support. Key points from this conversation include: A diagnosis of dementia does not mean the curtains close on a person's life, as the condition usually progresses over many years, and Danuta illustrates this with the author Christine Bryden, who received a PhD long after her young onset diagnosis. Dementia is an umbrella term covering many different types of cognitive change, with Alzheimer's disease the most common form and vascular dementia the second, each affecting the brain in different ways. The task is to see the person rather than the label, working with what the client brings just as with any other client, and holding to the core conditions of congruence, empathy, and acceptance. Therapists should expect mental capacity unless told otherwise, remembering that capacity is conditional and that someone may lack it for one task while retaining it for a therapeutic conversation. Young onset dementia can affect people under 60, which changes the concerns a client brings, such as work, family, and the future they had imagined. Working sensitively means staying with the emotion when stories are repeated, contracting afresh each session, and being clear with well-meaning relatives that the therapist is not simply a friend. Person-Centred Counselling for People with Dementia: Making Sense of Self Danuta Lipinska’s book, Person-Centred Counselling for People with Dementia: Making Sense of Self, shows how the person-centred approach can help clients with dementia hold on to a meaningful sense of who they are. It's a short, practical read for counsellors, healthcare professionals and families. Find it here. Bringing Counselling Theory and the Client Together [starts at 01:00:51 mins] In this section, Rory and Ken discuss how students can connect counselling theory with real client work without trying to apply it live in the room. Key points include: Theory should not be applied while sitting with a client, because the task in the room is to be a fully present, listening human being rather than a diagnostician. Counselling theory is not universal in the way gravity is, so it will not fit every client, and awarding bodies often ask for several sessions before a client is used as a case study for this reason. Rory notes that Rogers himself developed his theory by recording and analysing many client sessions afterwards, not by applying it in the moment. The place to ...
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