Outcome-directed Counseling Page 4 - Reaching Goals Sooner

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Outcome-directed Counseling

	1. What works in counseling?
	2. Tailoring strategies to clients
	3. Encouraging what already works
	4. Reaching goals sooner
	5. Evaluating the counselor

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4. Reaching goals sooner

(Page 4 of 5)

Hope is reinforced when a client leaves after the first session with a clear direction. An outcome-directed counselor strongly encourages rapid improvement. This is supported by research, which indicates that clients with better outcomes experience gains earlier rather than later in therapy .

An emphasis on early improvement contrasts sharply with traditional approaches, where a rapid "flight to health" is viewed as a cover-up to avoid "deeper" issues. Even when a client complains about lack of progress, the traditional counselor may advise him to be patient, to wait for the work to "take root."

But whose perspective is important in therapy? Isn't counseling ultimately about encouraging a client to be confident in his own perceptions? What would we say about someone who bought a car that didn't work, yet week after week accepted the dealer's blandishments that eventually the engine would start? What would we say about the dealer?

Attributing success to client efforts

In successful therapy, the counselor encourages more of what works. Improvement, meanwhile, is attributed neither to the counselor's unique methods nor special skills, but to the client's own creativity and follow through. Since interventions are based on positive influences already in place in the client's life, improvement is credited to the client.

Outcome-directed counseling tends to proceed rapidly then terminate naturally, usually at the client's request. When a client experiences himself functioning better and feels confident about maintaining gains, there is little need to extend therapy. An outcome-directed counselor will encourage independence, but the decision to terminate is always the client's.

Since outcome-directed therapy emphasizes a client's dependence on himself instead of the counselor, terminating clients usually feel more self-assured than patrons of traditional models. In many cases, clients feel ready to end therapy after about five to eight sessions.

Next: 5. Evaluating the counselor

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