Editorial Team
Nicola Blunden
Nicola is Director of Studies for the BSc in Person-Centred Pluralistic Counselling at Metanoia Institute. She has been a therapist and supervisor working for two decades in the economically deprived South Wales valleys. Nicola’s research and practice has often been inter-disciplinary, traversing professional silos. She is interested in co-produced research and co-creative practice. Her interest in inter-disciplinarity is pluralistic and person-centred, valuing the diverse forms of knowledge and phronesis that live at the heart of professional human practice.
Mick Cooper
Mick Cooper is Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton. He is an internationally recognised author, trainer, and consultant in the field of humanistic, existential, and pluralistic therapies; and a Chartered Psychologist. Mick has facilitated workshops and lectures around the world, including New Zealand, Lithuania, and Florida. Mick's books include Existential Therapies (2nd ed., Sage, 2017), Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy(2nd ed., Sage, 2018), and Integrating Counselling and Psychotherapy: Directionality, Synergy, and Social Change(Sage, 2019). Mick’s principal areas of research have been in shared decision-making/personalising therapy, and counselling for young people in schools. In 2014, Mick received the Carmi Harari Mid-Career Award from Division 32 of the American Psychological Association. He is a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the Academy of Social Sciences. Mick’s latest book explores the contribution that counselling and psychotherapy theory and practice can make to wider social progress and justice: Psychology at the Heart of Social Change: Towards a Progressive Vision for Society(Bristol University, 2023).
Lynne Gabriel
Lynne is Professor of Counselling and Mental Health at York St John University, York, UK. She is a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Accredited and Registered Counsellor and Psychotherapist, and a trained supervisor of practitioners working within the counselling, mental health and helping professions. Lynne has been a key player in the counselling and mental health fields for many years, contributing at local, regional, national, and international levels. Lynne is founding Director of the York St John University Communities Centre and founder of its associated Training, Research and Counselling Clinic Consortium (TRaCCs). TRaCCs members are drawn from UK counselling and mental health centres and clinics set in university contexts. Lynne's key research areas include mental health, domestic and relationship abuse, relational ethics, group interventions for bereavement and loss, review and evaluation of standardised mental health measures, and evaluation of the provision of online counselling. Lynne is working with Professor Andrew Reeves on a new Ethics in Action series for Routledge. When Lynne is not working, she loves spending time with her partner, socialising with friends, beachcombing and being by the sea!
Christine Kupfer
Christine is a pluralistic therapist (MBACP), a researcher, and a lecturer in Counselling & Psychotherapy at Abertay University. Her background and degrees (MSc, PhD) are in counselling, social and medical anthropology, education sciences, and psychology. She has carried out a wide range of research projects, such as a study on children’s mental health in India, a participatory citizen science research project on depression, ethnographic work with Ayurveda patients to understand their conceptualisations of health and healing, and research on Rabindranath Tagore, including a book on the humanistic approach of Rabindranath Tagore and his understanding of how people can be supported towards self-actualisation and various articles as well as a chapter on Tagore & Psychotherapy (in press). She has contributed to a paper on pluralistic research, creative and qualitative inquiry, social justice and decolonisation, and has written chapters and articles on pluralistic therapy (Handbook of Counselling and Psychotherapy, with J. McLeod & M. Cooper, in press; Handbook of Postmodern Therapies, with J. McLeod, in preparation) and is currently co-authoring a book on pluralistic therapy (Routledge; with Finnerty, Kearns & Smith). Her ongoing projects are on the “Dark Side of Meditation” and on working pluralistically with spiritual crises and with socio-political topics in therapy.
John McLeod
John McLeod is a pluralistic counsellor and psychotherapist who has worked in various community counselling agencies and in private practice. He is currently Visiting Professor in Counselling at the Institute for Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy in Dublin, and Emeritus Professor at Abertay University in Dundee. He has previously held similar positions at Keele, Oslo, Massey, and Padua. His publications include books, chapters and papers on a wide range of topics around therapy theory, research and practice (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8545-2844). Key themes across his career have included contributing to the development of research-informed practice, a commitment to a flexible, co-constructed approach to therapy, and a belief that healing and recovery can be facilitated through engagement with a wide range of everyday activities and both professional and non-professional helpers. A central focus of his current research, scholarship and personal development concerns finding ways for therapy to become more available and resourceful in respect to supporting individuals and communities to address critical social issues in such areas as: climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution; racism, colonialism and white privilege; and gender-based violence. A related area of interest is around the idea of psychotherapy as a means of extending an ethics of care into situations in which individuals and communities have suffered cruelty, betrayal and dispossession. This line of inquiry is accompanied by an intention to learn from the deep knowledge and traditions of indigenous cultures about how processes of collective caring can be sustained. His main sources of meaning, satisfaction and joy at the present time are grounded in his involvement in the lives and adventures of his grandchildren.
Andrew Reeves
Andrew is Professor in Counselling Professions and Mental Health, a Registered Social Worker, a BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist and an EMCC Accredited Coach. Andrew is previous Chair of the BACP and the Pluralistic Practice Network. He is Chair of the Advisory Board for York St John University Communities Centre, and on the Clinical Advisory Board for national CALM (mental health charity) and Jonathan’s Voice, amongst others. He has authored and co-edited a number of key texts, including Counselling Suicidal Clients (Sage, 2010), Working with Risk in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Sage, 2015) and An Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy: From Theory to Practice – 3rd Edition (Sage, 2022). He is working with Professor Lynne Gabriel on a new series, Ethics in Action, with Routledge (due for publication in 2023-4). His practice and research area has focused on ethics and working with risk for many years and is committed to the development of pluralism and trans-disciplinary working within a pluralistic frame.
James Schindler-Ord
James is a pluralistic therapist and supervisor, an accredited member of the National Counselling Society (MNCS Accred) and a registered member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (MBACP). After leaving the world of IT, he trained in gestalt therapy between 2005-2008 and then in body process psychotherapy, after which he added several other ways of working to his repertoire, including CBT, couples counselling and Shinrin Yoku. He qualified as a supervisor in 2011 and presently chairs the pluralistic supervision networking group, which focuses on how supervision looks from a pluralistic perspective. In 2011 James and a group of like-minded counselling colleagues set up a local charity whose aim was to provide counselling to people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access counselling services. He continues to help manage the charity. James has been a counselling tutor since 2012 and has co-written and facilitated workshops, certificates and diplomas in the counselling and psychotherapy field. He is the director of admin & IT at Devon Counselling College, which he runs with his wife.
Kate Smith
Kate is an academic, pluralistic therapist and supervisor. Kate is currently the Head of Health Sciences at Abertay University. She is a Trustee of the BACP, and former Chair of the Pluralistic Practice Steering Group. Her research has focussed on the psychological impact of living with long-term health conditions, mental health interventions in schools, and the education of mental health practitioners. Kate is a co-author of the Pluralistic Therapy Primer, and Frequently asked Questions in Pluralistic Therapy.
