Does class count: what significance do counsellors attach to social class?
Research rationale: Both researchers identify themselves as coming from working class backgrounds and as holding a personal and practice-based interest in social class. Wider studies confirm the continuing significance of class in shaping life-style and life chances and, hence, its potential importance to the counselling process. This sits alongside our perception that class is accorded little interest in counselling texts and research, an impression confirmed by a review of British counselling literature. Research design: The first stage of the research process involved an invitation to interested counsellors to join a Co-operative Inquiry Group to explore their perception of the significance of social class. This method was chosen as it reflected the researchers’ priorities in terms of: • Facilitating a collaborative, non-exploitative research process • Enabling the development of an organic, evolutionary research process • Creating a climate for an exploration of subjective experien
