'Looking the part' : a qualitative study on how counselling psychologists make sense of their professional attire

The majority of clothing-related research has concentrated on anthropology and social psychology, suggesting that clothing can impact the wearers behaviours, mood and cognitions and that first impressions are formed rapidly with great accuracy. In light of this knowledge, a gap in literature on professional attire within therapy orientated research was identified. Whilst clothing oneself is an everyday practice, its ubiquity has rendered it almost invisible as a focus of psychotherapy research. Clients’ preferences regarding therapists’ clothing have been researched quantitatively with highly inconclusive results. Additionally, some advice on self-presentation exists in the form of blogs, with few connections to research. The main aim of this research was to explore the views around the professional attire of counselling psychologists and to answer the question “How do counselling psychologists view and make sense of their attire in clinical work?”. Additionally, whether counselling psychologists can regard attire as an added source of information about the self. A variety of sampling strategies were used to recruit participants. Inductive thematic analysis was chosen to engage closely with data in an under-researched subject and additional research questions were developed during the analysis. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with qualified counselling psychologists in the UK; four males and seven females participated. The interviewees’ ages ranged from 33 to 91, with their experience of private practice ranging from 1 to 13 years. Three themes were identified. ‘Shall We Talk About Attire?’ illustrated the ambivalence surrounding the importance of discussions about attire. The second theme: ‘You need to look the part; became an echo of clothing practices beyond specific garments and was explored within three further sub-themes that grapple with what this part might actually look like. The last theme, ‘Underneath our clothes’, pointed to attire being used beyond simply being dressed, but as a way to enhance the therapeutic relationship, reflect congruence and acknowledge that clients notice us. The results highlight that counselling psychologists consider attire and their visual self-presentations to be an important aspect of clinical work, even if rarely discussed. This study is unique in empirically investigating the issue of counselling psychologists’ attire and its findings are transferable to other helping professions. Further implications for counselling psychology and avenues for additional research are discussed.