Making Change Visible: The Possibilities in Assessing Mental Health Counseling Outcomes

The product of mental health counseling, unlike that of most professions, remains invisible to most people, leaving counselors vulnerable in a competitive market. The author argues that clinicians should recognize the value of, understand, and begin using outcome measures in their work. Research focusing on critical problems in psychotherapy outcome instruments, advances that have been made to counter those problems, areas of consensus among outcome researchers, and practical recommendations for using outcome measures are examined.