A note on assessing the effects of therapy in a family-counseling agency

✍ Scribed by Carolin S. Keutzer

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 197 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0090-4392
• DOI: 10.1002/1520-6629(197910)7:4<354::aid-jcop2290070413>3.0.co;2-0

✦ Synopsis

As a part of an ongoing research project, three quick, simple, and reliable instruments were used to measure the degree and type of psychological distress that clients at a nonprofit counseling agency experienced prior and subsequent to receiving therapy. Although not free from methodological difficulties (most notably the number of nonrespondents at follow-up), this study showed a statistically significant (p < .001) positive change in all the measures in a pre-and post-therapy comparison.

Despite the fact that there has been no clear-cut, methodologically sophisticated, and sufficiently general paradigm which can be used to determine the effectiveness of psychotherapy, there is increasing demand for accountability (proof of "good" results) in most state and community nonprofit agencies, Responding to that need, this study reports the results of an ongoing program of systematic assessment of treatment outcome.