This seminar introduces the methodological foundations of Psychosocial Thematic Analysis (PTA), with Dr Isaac Chun-Yeung Yu and Dr Nini Kerr

Psychosocial Thematic Analysis (PTA) is a qualitative analytical approach that explores the interplay between individual psychic lives and wider social dynamics. This seminar introduces the methodological foundations of PTA, giving a context of how it developed, and taking the audience through its key principles including the “triadic attentiveness”. Using Isaac’s recent research, this seminar will illustrate how triadic attentiveness guides the developments of psychosocial themes and interpretations across the six phases. Finally, we will offer some thoughts on what reflexivity means in PTA.

The seminar is open to all; it welcomes postgraduate students, early-career researchers and academics interested in qualitative methodologies, psychosocial research and psychoanalytically informed approaches. No prior experience of psychosocial research is required.

Dr Isaac Chun-Yeung Yu is a Senior Lecturer at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, a Registered Counselling Psychologist with the Hong Kong Psychological Society, and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. He completed his PhD in Counselling Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he explored the psychosocial struggles of novice counselling psychologists transitioning from training to practice in Hong Kong, with particular attention to coloniality and professional becoming. His doctoral research contributed to the development of Psychosocial Thematic Analysis (PTA), which he subsequently introduced in a co-authored methodological paper with Nini Kerr in the Journal of Psychosocial Studies (2026). He has presented his research on coloniality and counselling psychology training at conferences organised by the Association for Psychosocial Studies (APS) and the British Psychological Society (BPS). His research interests include psychosocial methodologies, professional identity development, and decolonising counselling psychology education and practice.

Dr Nini Kerr is a Senior Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh. She is an accredited trainer and practitioner who works through a critical, psychoanalytic lens. Her publications span the intersection of sociological and psychoanalytic studies, including Culture as the Bad Object (Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society) and The Tyranny of Relationality (International Journal of Psychoanalysis). She was awarded the Good Practice Research Award in the Positive Disruptor category (2022) in recognition of her sustained contributions to innovating and revitalising research practices that promote social justice and equality. She also received the Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme (2023–2024) for her project on decolonising counselling and psychotherapy.

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