This portfolio comprises of work submitted for the Practitioner Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology. It contains academic, therapeutic practice and research dossiers. The aims of this introduction are to put the work into the context of my development as a practitioner, as well as to alert the reader to the various links between the papers in this portfolio. I have known for a long time that I wanted to be a therapist of some description. Several people bad an influence on this intention, firstly my mother, who worked in psychiatric teaching until I was 16. Secondly, there was my violin teacher who was also a music therapist. I feel that the combination of these two formative influences gave me an early insight into the different ways of approaching and being with human distress, the one from the head, and the other more from the heart. One thing I felt both women were united in was the intention to help, and use their skills to make a difference in the world. My decision (though it was more an evolution than a decision) to put my efforts into studying psychology come very much from the some intention; I want to do something worthwhile with the time given to me, to use the skills I was born with and the skills I have learned to make a difference in the world.