The Practice prizes acknowledge and celebrate the wealth of work being conducted by counselling psychologists in all settings throughout Britain.

The awards are aimed at all levels of experience and practice and submissions are welcome from applicants at both early career stage and in later career.  Single one-off projects as well as broader initiatives are likely to make for a good quality submission.  

Do you know or work with a Counselling Psychologist who deserves recognition? If so, please nominate them for one of the awards below.

Prize categories are:

• Annual award for carer and service user involvement - recognises genuine commitment to putting the needs of the service user or carer at the heart of the work.
• Annual award for diversity - shining examples of individuals who have been creative in recognising and valuing diversity which has benefited all.
• Annual award for innovation - outstanding contribution to innovative practice or research, this could include the full range of practice from individual practice or one off projects to service development or theoretical model development.
• Annual supervisor/mentor award - outstanding contribution to supervision and development of others.

Prizes:

• Award presentation ceremony on Day 1 of the conference.
• A summary of the winners work and all of the nominations will be placed on the website and will be disseminated more widely, including to training courses and independent route candidates to increase visibility and to inspire others.
• Free one day registration to the 2019 DCoP conference for the winners in the four categories.

How to apply:

• Submit a nomination

The deadline for submissions is the 17 May 2019. 

The nominated psychologists must be members of the Division of Counselling Psychology. 

Judging and awards:

Judging will be completed by a panel of judges.

The winners will be contacted approximately one month prior to the DCoP Conference.

The award ceremony will take place on day 1 of the DCoP Conference 2019

The DCoP trainee prize will be awarded at the Division of Counselling Psychology Annual conference.

The winner will be awarded a prize of £100, while the two runners-up will received £50 each.

In addition the winner and runners up will receive a one day registration at the DCoP Annual Conference in Cardiff and up to £200 per person will be reimbursed to cover the cost of travel (in accordance with BPS travel expense guidelines).

If any of the winners cannot attend, their prizes will be sent in the post.

Aims and Purpose of the Trainee Annual Prize

The aim is to promote and encourage excellence in the training and practice of counselling psychology in all its professional arenas. The purpose is to stimulate Trainee Counselling Psychologists to attain excellence in their written work during the course of their training.

Submission Details

Submissions must:

• Be a piece of course work which has been assessed as part of the trainee’s counselling psychology training. Trainees are allowed to edit work for submission to the Prize; this can include editing work to the required word length. Submission can be of any piece of course work except for research papers [which trainees are encouraged to submit to the research prize] including for example client studies, theoretical essays, and literature reviews.

• Demonstrate excellence and originality in an area relevant to Counselling Psychology and other applied psychologies.

• Have a word limit of 5,000 words (not including quotes, references and bibliography). 
• Includes critical evaluation and is written according to APA style at an academic standard equivalent to Level 7.

Details of how to submit will be released shortly

You will be required to submit the following:

1. A letter from the Course Tutor or Coordinating Supervisor confirming that the work was undertaken as part of the trainees training on an HCPC approved and BPS accredited professional doctorate in counselling psychology or BPS Qualification in Counselling Psychology. For submissions which include extensive client material (such as client studies or process reports) the letter must include confirmation from the course tutor or coordinator of training confirming that they are satisfied that client consent has been obtained and that the degree of anonymisation in the work are appropriate to the case and circumstances, taking account of potential publication of any winning entry.
2. The piece of course work.

The winner and runners-up will be informed of their success by email around the end of May / beginning of June 2019. Brief feedback will be provided for every submission and winner and runners-up will be encouraged to attend the Division of Counselling Psychology Conference to receive their prize.

How to apply

The award is now closed

In 2018 we relaunched the DCoP Practice prize awards. The prizes were aimed at celebrating and disseminating the outstanding work of Counselling Psychologists in practice.

We are proud to celebrate the outstanding work of Counselling psychologists and with your help we hope to continue to develop and recognise the high quality and innovative work of our members in more categories for many years to come.

2018 Annual Award for Carer and Service User Involvement: Dr Robin Dundas

Robin has won the award for his tireless commitment to service user care and involvement. A group of his colleagues nominated him and all described his outstanding and inspiring work. I think their words capture his work and passion. So here in his colleagues words is a summary of Robins outstanding contribution.  

Dr Robin Dundas has undoubtedly a genuine a commitment to service user care and involvement which he has tirelessly exercised within a busy NHS gender service, through often challenging and difficult times. His role has spanned individual and group psychotherapy, complex assessments and endorsements for medical interventions, delivering training and supervision, developing new projects and leading on parts of the psychology service, as well as covering service lead responsibilities. He has always not just represented his patients above and beyond what is required, but sought out where inequities may exist in the service and service users’ needs not best being met. As his Line Manager and Head of Department for near a decade of his career, I have no hesitation in nominating him for this award and as can be seen from the testimonials below, neither do his other colleagues. Dr Penny Lenihan, Consultant Psychologist. 

Robin is a passionate Counselling Psychologist who holds the values of social justice and person centred care at the heart of all he does. He frequently goes above and beyond for patients, and tirelessly fights for patients’ best interests both within our service, and with other agencies our patients are involved with. Dr Jess Gran, Highly Specialist Psychologist.

It seems that this reward is such a small symbol of gratitude when compared to the tremendous contribution you have made not only to the patients you’ve served, but to those other professionals such as myself. Thank you Robin for this gift to us all!! Dr Craig B Rypma, Ph.D., M.B.A. Highly Specialist Psychologist.

2018 Annual Award for Innovation: Simon Proudlock

Simon was nominated for his work with EMDR Therapy for treatment of individuals who are on an acute psychiatric ward or who are under the care of the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT). Using EMDR Therapy in this setting, and taking a trauma focused approach to those presenting in acute services, had not been previously tried anywhere else within the UK or internationally. 

Patients were offered immediate access to specialised treatment in a safe and supportive environment with the aim of alleviating their trauma symptoms and facilitating early discharge from services. The project ensured continuity of care, from the ward to the community, which has shown to be a time where patients are at higher risk of suicide.Overall the initial aims of the project were met and in some cases exceeded. The project successfully treated 70 patients, demonstrating a strong case for the use of EMDR therapy with clients in an acute mental health crisis. The project revealed that therapy with this client group does not increase clinical risk but in fact reduces the desire for suicide, anxiety, depression and PTSD symptoms to a clinically significantly level. In addition, the project demonstrated an increase in clients’ confidence in managing their mental health, resulting in a reduction in reliance on services, with the majority of patients treated being discharged from Mental Health services.

The project provided a considerable cost saving to the NHS by reducing the need for inpatient beds, CRHTT support and further psychological therapy. Of those treated in the project, there was on average a 70% reduction in their use of acute mental health services compared to the 12 months prior to treatment. 

This unique approach has been an very important service development. Taking a trauma focused approach seems to be an important intervention to help individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. EMDR Therapy used in this environment has provided a new care pathway for acute mental health services and has helped prevent a revolving door service for some patients. Simon was able to show significant savings for the NHS as well as the huge savings in emotional costs to the client once successfully treated. The project showed that treating individuals who have a trauma picture and high levels of suicidal ideation with EMDR Therapy reduces the desire for suicide and clinical risk.