Practice As Research in counselling: The development of a model of counselling for sight loss.

In this seminar, Dr Mhairi Thurston discusses Practice As Research in counselling.“You feel as though someone’s chipped a bit out of your heart and your soul”. Practice as research in counselling: The development of a model of counselling for sight loss.This talk outlines the mental health impacts of sight loss, through lived experience and through research. It charts the development of a model of counselling for people with sight loss, using practice as research in counselling. A quasi-judicial, hermeneutic, single-case efficacy design methodology will be explained.Dr. Mhairi Thurston is an accredited and registered Pluralistic counsellor, as well as a Senior Lecturer in Counselling at Abertay University in Dundee. She served on the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Board of Governors from 2011 to 2020 and chaired the BACP Research Committee from 2018 to 2020. She currently chairs the BACP Good Practice Committee. Her primary research interest focuses on the social and emotional impact of acquired sight loss. Additionally, she is interested in broader issues surrounding disability, equality, and inclusion. She developed a pluralistic practice model for counselling individuals with vision impairment.  She won the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy New Researcher Prize in 2009. Describing herself as an ‘academic activist,’ she employs research and collaboration to effect real-world change for people with vision impairment. She has worked collaboratively with RNIB to produce an award-winning training course for counsellors working with individuals who have vision impairment. She has also collaborated with Retina UK to create a free online resource that supports mental well-being in the visually impaired community. Furthermore, she founded the Sight Loss Research Network (SLRN) in collaboration with Dr. Hazel McFarlane of Alliance Scotland, aiming to bring academics and charities together to foster opportunities for collaboration. She has previously been an associate editor for the International Journal of Disability, Development, and Education, and she is a member of the editorial board of Disability and Society. She also serves as a Lay Advisor for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. Mhairi is severely sight-impaired and has a guide dog called Meadow.