The goals of young people in school‐based counselling and their achievement of these goals

Abstract

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

Comparing Online and Face-to-Face Student Counselling: What Therapeutic Goals Are Identified and What Are the Implications for Educational Providers?

“…The two former core categories, Intrapersonal Goals and Interpersonal Goals, resonate explicitly with other taxonomies of therapeutic goals related to work with young people and young adults (e.g. Bradley, Murphy, Fugard, Nolas, & Law, 2013;Rupani et al, 2013). In between these areas however, there were a substantial number of goals that young people identified that did not fit neatly within these two core categories.…”

“…For instance, the Bern inventory (Grosse & Grawe, 2002) summarizes 1,031 goals articulated by 298 outpatients at a university clinic into five different categories: (1) coping with specific problems and symptoms, (2) interpersonal goals, (3) well-being and functioning, (4) existential issues, and (5) personal growth. Similarly, Rupani et al (2013) These findings revealed that the goals fell into four major domains: (1) Emotional Goals, (2) Interpersonal Goals, (3) Goals targeting specific issues, and (4) Personal Growth goals. As is evident within these two classification systems, taxonomies vary in their degrees of divergence and convergence.…”

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of humanistic counselling in schools for young people with emotional distress (ETHOS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

“…For example, Cooper [ 20 ] and Cooper et al [ 25 ] found significant reductions in psychological distress pre- and post-counselling (weighted mean difference (WMD) = 0.81, 95% CI [0.76–0.86]; and d = 1.49, 95% CI [1.29–1.69], respectively). Furthermore, secondary school pupils have reported that attending school-based counselling services positively impacted on their studying and learning [ 26 ]. School management has reported perceived improvements in attainment, attendance, and behaviour of young people who have accessed school-based counselling services [ 27 ].…”

A comprehensive mapping of outcomes following psychotherapy for adolescent depression: The perspectives of young people, their parents and therapists

“…Existing studies exploring their notions of 'good outcome' have drawn attention to a broader range of themes, as well as divergent priorities between groups. Adolescents have tended to emphasize changes in their ability to understand and cope with feelings and thoughts; greater connectedness with others; a stronger sense of self; and increased hope [17][18][19][20][21]. Parents have been found to value outcomes related to managing youth behavior; and therapists have been seen to focus on intermediate outcomes linked to their training and approach [22,23].…”