Matthew Leavesley

Biography

Matthew is a BACP accredited person-centred and experiential counsellor, EMDR practitioner, lecturer and doctoral candidate. Over the last 20 years, Matthew has worked in many different roles across the private, public and third sectors. His counselling practice began when he worked for a hospice and a rape crisis service. Currently he works for the NHS as a High Intensity Therapist and teaches on the MSc Counselling & Psychotherapy programme at Keele University.

Matthew’s doctoral research is centred on understanding how government policies affect young people in full time education. He has used both quantitative and qualitative methods and is keen to pursue more mixed methods research. Matthew has previously been a researcher at the University of Birmingham collaborating on an Erasmus+ project within the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan. The project was funded by the EU that aimed to improve the mental wellbeing of Bhutanese staff and students in higher education.

Research and scholarship

2024 Keele Counselling & Psychotherapy Conference. [Workshop] A profound encounter: Relational depth in the therapeutic relationship.

2023 Keele Counselling & Psychotherapy Conference. [Workshop] Taming your inner rescuer/fixer.

2023 Keele Counselling & Psychotherapy Conference. [Symposium] [MSc Dissertation] The wanderlust spirit: where does it come from? An evocative autoethnography.

Teaching

• PSY-40026 Research Methods
• PSY-40027 Dissertation
• PSY- 40054 Personal and Professional Development and Reflexivity