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Background: There is a growing body of data to show that participation in school‐based counselling is associated with significant reductions in psychological distress. However, this cannot be taken as evidence that school‐based counselling is effective, as improvements may have happened without the intervention. Aims: The purpose of this study was to develop a method of estimating the amount of ‘natural’ change that might be expected in young people who would attend school‐based counselling, such that the effects of the intervention over and above this amount could be identified. Method: Young Person's CORE (YP‐CORE) scores from 74 participants allocated to waiting list control conditions in four pilot trials of school‐based counselling in the UK were re‐analysed using regression models, and a formula was found for estimating the outcomes for young people were they not to receive counselling. This was termed their Estimated Non‐intervention Outcome (ENO), and could then be compared against the young person's Actual Outcome (AO), to give an estimated intervention effect (EIE). Results: The formula for the ENO was 4.17 + 0.64 × baseline score. Using this, we calculated a mean EIE for 256 young people in a cohort evaluation study of school‐based counselling, which showed that the counselling was associated with large and significantly greater change than would be expected without the intervention (Cohen's d = 0.91). Discussion: The method presented in this paper is a simple means for improving the accuracy of estimations of treatment effectiveness, helping to adjust for changes due to spontaneous recovery and other non‐treatment effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aim of this paper is to present an attempt to collate the results of the client‐completed Goal Attainment Form (GAF) and to explore the usefulness of analysing the data in this way. The GAF is used primarily to add qualitative idiosyncratic data to the quantitative data collected by the CORE‐OM (Clinical Outcomes for Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure) questionnaire. Method: A sample of 477 completed GAF were used during short‐term therapy through primary care mental health services to investigate potential correlations in various different aspects between the GAF and the CORE outcome measure (CORE‐OM). The themes from these forms were qualitatively analysed to compare how clients describe their experience of therapy with clinical perspectives. Results: The results reveal several significant correlations. Themes used by clients to describe their problems and benefits of therapy were different from clinicians' perspectives. Discussion and recommendations: Several suggestions and recommendations are offered regarding evaluation, therapy and primary care short‐term therapy services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a need for a generic, short, and easy‐to‐use assessment measure for common presentations of psychological distress in UK primary care mental health settings. This paper sets out the development of the CORE‐10 in response to this need. Method: Items were drawn from the CORE‐OM and 10 items were selected according to a combination of usefulness, coverage of item clusters, and statistical procedures. Three CORE‐OM datasets were employed in the development phase: (1) a primary care sample, (2) a sample from an MRC platform trial of enhanced collaborative care of depression in primary care, and (3) a general population sample derived from the Office of National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity Follow‐up survey. A fourth dataset comprising a sample from an occupational health setting was used to evaluate the CORE‐10 in its standalone format. Results: The internal reliability (alpha) of the CORE‐10 was.90 and the score for the CORE‐10 correlated with the CORE‐OM at.94 in a clinical sample and.92 in a non‐clinical sample. The clinical cut‐off score for general psychological distress was 11.0 with a reliable change index (90% CI) of 6. For depression, the cut‐off score for the CORE‐10 was 13 and yielded sensitivity and specificity values of.92 (CI=.83–1.0) and 0.72 (CI=.60–.83) respectively. Conclusion: The CORE‐10 is an acceptable and feasible instrument that has good psychometric properties and is practical to use with people presenting with common mental health problems in primary care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people experience estrangement from a family member, which is broadly understood to refer to negative relationships that are characterised by little or no contact. However, little is known about how people cope with family estrangement. To address this gap, interviews were conducted with 46 participants who identified as being estranged from a parent/sibling and/or child and having sought therapeutic support for this experience. The participants were recruited from a UK‐based charity that supports individuals experiencing family estrangement. The participants had a range of experiences of therapeutic support, with most (N = 31, 67%) having paid for private therapy. The data were analysed using thematic analysis, and three themes were generated: (1) finding the missing qualities in estranged family relationships: warmth, validation and safety; (2) speaking the unspoken: addressing the causes and consequences of estrangement; and (3) learning relational skills: improving the relationship with oneself and with others. When the causes of estrangement were addressed in the context of a safe therapeutic relationship, participants learned strategies to improve the relationships they had both with themselves and with others. When participants experienced a cold or unresponsive therapeutic relationship, and the causes and consequences of estrangement were not adequately addressed or understood, counselling was experienced as unhelpful. Individuals who seek therapeutic support for family estrangement have specific needs. Training around these needs and the causes and consequences of estrangement could be beneficial to helping professionals and the clients with whom they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: In this study, we intended to explore whether there are any differences between counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists in the reporting and interpretation of synchronicity experiences (SEs) in the therapeutic setting. SEs are defined as psychologically meaningful connections between inner events (such as a thought, vision or feeling) and one or more external events occurring simultaneously or at a future point in time. Design: An online survey link was emailed to a random sample of counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists drawn from membership lists of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), British Psychological Society (BPS) and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). The survey was designed to investigate the following research questions: do practitioners report SEs in the therapeutic setting? Are there any differences between types of practitioners in terms of explanations for SEs? Were SEs believed to be more likely to occur at certain points in therapy? Results: A total of 226 respondents completed the survey. One hundred respondents (44%) reported that they had experienced synchronicity in the therapeutic setting, of whom 55 were psychotherapists, 21 counsellors and 24 psychologists. The majority of respondents (67%) felt that SEs could be useful for therapy. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences between practitioner types in their interpretation of SEs but no differences in perception of when synchronicity events were likely to occur. Conclusion: Findings have important implications for how practitioners may respond to clients who report SEs and are discussed alongside suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Levels of goal agreement between therapists and adult clients have been shown to relate to therapeutic outcomes. Understanding clients' goals for therapy, therefore, is an important area of study. Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the therapeutic goals that young people have in school‐based counselling, and the extent to which different types of goals are achieved. Method: The study is a post‐hoc analysis of data collected from two pilot randomised controlled trials (RCT) using the Goal Based Outcome (GBO) tool, in which 73 participants were allocated to either a counselling group or a waitlist control group. Thematic analysis was used to identify the main types of goals young people had; with descriptive quantitative analysis to identify the prevalence of these goals, and multi‐level analysis to identify whether some goals were attained to a greater extent than others. Results: The most frequent type of goals identified by young people related to increasing self‐confidence and self‐acceptance, followed by controlling or reducing anger, improving relationships with family, and increasing feelings of happiness. No significant relationship was found between the type of goal and the extent to which they were attained in counselling. Conclusion: Young people in counselling are particularly concerned with improving their self‐confidence, and this suggests a somewhat different focus to the counselling work than that which emerges from counsellors' reports of presenting and predominant issues. This suggests that school‐based counsellors should be mindful of clients' particular therapeutic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]