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Aims: School‐based humanistic counselling (SBHC) is a common psychological intervention for young people, particularly in the UK. However, studies have tended to suffer from high attrition rates, such that effects may have been over‐estimated. This paper describes a low budget ‘star topology’ practice research network (PRN) outcome evaluation of SBHC in a sample where attrition rates were minimised. Design: A practice‐based longitudinal study in a small PRN compared levels of psychological distress at first and last session from session‐by‐session data. Multilevel regression modelling was used to identify predictors of outcomes. Methods: Eight counsellors working across 11 schools agreed to use session‐by‐session self‐rating on the Young Person's CORE (YP‐CORE) yielding data from 256 young people aged 11 to 17. Predictors of outcomes were analysed using multilevel regression analysis. Results: Mean levels of distress on the YP‐CORE reduced from 18.29 (SD = 7.32) at baseline to 9.10 (SD = 6.19) at endpoint, giving a baseline to endpoint effect size of 1.26 (95% CI = 1.06–1.46). Lower levels of psychological distress at endpoint were associated with male clients, younger age groups, greater rates of attendance at counselling, and bereavement as a presenting problem. Conclusions: This ‘star topology’ PRN focused on a single study and demonstrated that such a system can provide relatively low cost, high quality data. The data showed that SBHC is associated with large reductions in psychological distress, and that this cannot be attributed to the high attrition rates of previous datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: There have been several calls for adopting an empirical approach investigating public opinion concerning the differentiation between the professional titles 'counsellor' and 'psychotherapist'. The present research makes a first step to addressing this issue. Method: Sixteen interviewers, recruited across the UK, interviewed 450 members of the public in 57 UK district codes. Age, gender and education were monitored for sampling purposes. Results: The findings indicated that around two thirds of the public perceive the professional title 'counsellor' to be distinct from the professional titles 'psychotherapist' and 'psychological therapist' and for these latter two titles to be almost identical. About one third of the public perceive the opposite trend, and one tenth is undecided whether these professional titles are distinct or indistinct. Conclusion: These results have implications for the debate concerning the structure of the Health Professions Council (HPC) Register in the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]