hile skills-based approaches to basic counselling training dominate the field, they have been criticised W on four counts: (a) lack of evidence as to effectiveness in improving interview performance, (b) lack of evidence of skills retention and transfer, (c) failure to take into account trainees' individual differences in counselling aptitude, and (d) failure to take into account trainees' underlying cognitive structures and processes. A review of the literature suggests that the first two criticisms can be rejected and that there is insufficient empirical evidence at present to support the other two. Some guidelines for counselling skills training are suggested. I am very appreciative of the advice given by Christopher Sharpley, Monash University, on meta-analysis procedures. Mary Omodei, University of Melbourne, wrote the program used to calculate unbiased effect sizes.
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