Counsellor bias against shorter term counselling? A comparison of counsellor and client satisfaction in a Canadian setting

Abstract

The American counselling/psychotherapy outcome research documenting the effectiveness or brief, time-limited treatments is substantial, however, this appears to have had little influence on changing the views of practitioners. One respected researcher has concluded, for example, that a science/practice schism has developed where practitioners continue to believe that brief counselling is superficial and to underestimate the effects of their own shorter-term work. A study was undertaken to determine if counsellors at a large urban Canadian university counselling centre also had lower expectations of change for those clients who received fewer treatment sessions. It was found that the counsellors significantly underestimated treatment gains relative to their clients' reports, and that this discrepancy was greater for those clients seen for fewer sessions. Counsellor satisfaction was also lower with clients seen for fewer sessions. These findings suggest that, like their American counterparts, Canadian counsellors tend toward a practitioner bias against shorter-term treatment based on misconceptions about its efficacy.