Counselling

Psychology
Review
The Journal of The British Psychological Society
Division of Counselling Psychology

Special Edition on
Counselling Psychology and
Psychological Testing

Volume 19 Number 4 November 2004

Counselling Psychology Review
Editor: Alan Bellamy Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust

Reference Library Editor Waseem Alladin Hull University, Centre for Couple, Marital & Sex Therapy and
and Consulting Editor: Hull & East Riding Health NHS Trust

Book Reviews Editor: Kasia Szymanska Centre for Stress Management

Consulting Editors: Malcolm C. Cross City University

Nicky Hart Wolverhampton University
Ruth Jordan Surrey University
Martin Milton Surrey University
Stephen Palmer Centre for Stress Management and City University
Linda Papadopoulos London Guildhall University
John Rowan The Minster Centre
Mary Watts City University

Editorial Advisory Board: Alan Frankland APSI Nottingham

Heather Sequeira St. George’s Medical School
Sheelagh Strawbridge Independent Practitioner and Kairos Counselling and
Training Services, Hessle, East Yorkshire

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Copyright for published material rests with the Division of Counselling Psychology and The British Psychological
Society unless otherwise stated. With agreement, an author will be allowed to republish an article elsewhere
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Counselling psychologists and teachers of psychology may use material contained in this publication in any way that
may help their teaching of counselling psychology. Permission should be obtained from the Society for any other use.
The British Psychological Society
Counselling Psychology Review
Volume 19 ● Number 4 ● November 2004

Editorial 2
Alan Bellamy
Guest Editorial: Introduction to the Special Edition 3
Pavlo Kanellakis
Counselling psychology and psychological testing: 5
Professional issues
Susan Van Scoyoc
Using psychometrics in an NHS addictions service 6
Jo Ploszajski
Embracing psychometric assessment 18
Courtney G. Raspin & Pavlo Kanellakis
Counselling psychology and psychometrics: 25
A South African perspective
Jace Pillay
The use of psychological tests and measurements by 32
psychologists in the role of counsellor in Greece
Sofia Triliva
Hard science in a soft world (a personal view) 41
Bruce Grimley
Book Reviews 45
Newsletter Section
Letter from the Chair 49
Divisional News
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) – 50
New Society requirements
Vivienne Purcell
News from the Surrey course 53
Martin Milton
Correspondence 54
Talking Point 56
Martin Milton
Events Diary 58
Index to Volume 19 61

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

Editorial
Alan Bellamy
HIS THEMED EDITION of Counselling
T Psychology Review, on Counselling
Psychology and Psychological Testing,
is guest edited and introduced by Pavlo
Kanellakis. We thank Pavlo for undertaking
this task. The views expressed in some of the
papers may well conflict with the position held
on this topic by some readers; as always we
would be happy to hear from you. In addition
to the themed section, in the Newsletter section
we have a piece on Continuing Professional
Development.
This is the last Counselling Psychology
Review for which I will be acting as Editor; the
roles of Chair of the Division and Editor of CPR
are both time-consuming, although greatly
rewarding, and cannot be combined for long
without danger of frazzling the brain or at least
forgetting something that shouldn’t be
forgotten. Therefore, it gives me much pleasure
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to tell you that Heather Sequeira will be taking
over after this issue. I have enjoyed the past
two years as Editor and I hope that you have
found the new style CPR interesting and infor-
mative. Don’t forget that this is your Journal –
let us know what you want in it. The new
editorial contact details will be:
Heather Sequeira
Chartered Psychologist,
Psychological Services,
Gulson Hospital, Gulson Road,
Coventry CV1 2HR.
E-mail: heathersequeira@onetel.com
I would like to thank Martin Reeves at the
BPS for his never-failing helpfulness. Also the
Editorial team and reviewers, and everyone
who has contributed to CPR over the past two
years. I am sure CPR will continue to grow and
prosper under Heather’s leadership.

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2 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

Guest Editorial:
Introduction to the
Special Edition
Pavlo Kanellakis, Royal Free Eating Disorders
Service, London.
ELCOME TO THIS special edition of
W Counselling Psychology Review on
Counselling Psychology and
Psychological Testing. When I read in the
January issue of The Psychologist (p.47 in the
‘Society Section’) the announcement entitled
‘PTC’ ONLINE, I found it highly concerning
that with the exception of counselling psycho-
logists, all other applied psychologists (i.e.
occupational, forensic, educational, clinical
and health psychologists) have been invited to
contribute for the articles to be commissioned
for the ‘Think Outside the Box’ series. I think
that counselling psychology has a lot to
contribute with its stance towards psycho-
logical testing.
After my first degree in psychology, which
included a couple of modules on psychological
testing, I did a Masters in Counselling
Psychology at the University of East London.
At that time Martin Fine was heading the
course and he provided significant emphasis
on psychological testing before he moved to
City University. I need to acknowledge that in
my identity as a counselling psychologist,
psychological testing is a significant element.
Although the Society-accredited post-
graduate courses were contacted for contribu-
tions regarding the training perspectives, it
became apparent that they are currently pre-
occupied with aligning their curriculum with
the Society’s new Qualification in Counselling
Psychology, which includes psychological
testing amongst the competencies.
Although I was hoping to invest a signifi-
cant amount of energy and time to include
voices that disagree with the use of
Psychological Testing by Counselling
Psychologists, there was no submission repre-
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
senting these voices beyond the letter
published in the last issue of CPR; hopefully,
the ‘Correspondence’ section can be used again
to support our diversity and inclusiveness.
Susan Van Scoyoc provides an introduction
by addressing historical issues as well as some
of the professional implications of psycho-
logical testing on counselling psychology.
Jo Ploszajski shares her experience of using
psychometrics as a counselling psychologist
working in an NHS addictions service; I found
this article not only interesting in terms of the
topic but also in terms of learning more about
addictions work. This is followed by my article
with Courtney Raspin, which illustrates how
we use psychological testing within a coun-
selling psychology framework at a London
Eating Disorder Service.
As coaching is one area of non-clinical
application of counselling psychology, I invited
the submission of articles for this special
edition through the Coaching Psychology
Forum. This resulted in the refreshing contri-
bution of Bruce Grimley.
Further to the call for articles for the special
edition in the May issue of CPR, I also
contacted all the English-speaking interna-
tional psychological associations with a
Counselling Psychology Section/Division. As a
result, I am delighted that we have a contribu-
tion from Jace Pillay, the Chair of the
Counselling Psychology Division of The
Psychological Society of South Africa, which is
a country which has taken psychology to new
frontiers in several areas. Unfortunately, the
liaison with the American, Canadian and
Australian psychological associations did not
lead to contributions. I was particularly inter-
ested in learning more about the Australian
3
experience as the website of the Counselling
Psychology Section of the Australian
Psychological Society states that ‘Psychological
tests may be part of the counselling process’.
As I am originally from Greece, where
counselling psychology is at its formation
stage, I was able to liaise and have a
contrasting contribution by Sofia Triliva and
Anastassios Stalikas. In Greece, counselling
psychology does not have the history and
identity that it has in Britain and North
America and it is conceptualised as
Psychologists practising counselling/
therapeutic interventions in private practice
versus the psychologists who work in their
National Health Service.
May we be respectfully challenged!

11th Annual BACP Research Conference

20-21 May 2005, Birmingham

‘Research that makes a difference’

In association with the University of Birmingham, Lifelong Learning Department

CALL FOR PAPERS

BACP invites researchers of all levels, practitioners, trainers and
students to the BACP research conference in Birmingham 2005.
The conference offers delegates the opportunity to access and
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Further information
www.bacp.co.uk/research/conference2005
Contact Angela Couchman on 0870 443 5237 or email:
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British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP House, 35-37 Albert Street, Rugby, CV21 2SG
Company limited by guarantee 2175320. Registered in England and Wales. Registered charity 298361

4 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

Counselling psychology
and psychological testing:
Professional issues
Susan Van Scoyoc*
Introduction
days of the Counselling
I
N THE EARLY
Psychology Division in the UK the ‘grand-
parents’ who became the first Chartered
members were psychologists who had gone on
to pursue training and employment in the
counselling arena.
Most Counselling Psychologists at this time
had no wish to use psychological tests with their
clients. Indeed, the use of tests was opposed by
the majority of Counselling Psychologists as a
form of ‘labelling’ or categorisation in the same
way diagnostic labels can be used to discrimi-
nate against clients. It was seen as not in keeping
with our humanistic philosophy.
However, time and the success of coun-
selling psychologists has resulted in increasing
numbers of Counselling Psychologists being
employed in settings which require the use of
tests as part of their work with clients. Can
these demands be reconciled with our human-
istic underpinnings? Should they? Can we as
Counselling Psychologists use these tests and
preserve our way of being and thinking about
our clients? Can we use these tests and enable
them to benefit rather than harm our clients?
History of psychometric testing
The first tests were developed at the bidding of
the Minister of Public Instruction in Paris in
1904 who appointed a committee to find a
method of separating ‘mentally retarded’ from
‘normal’ children in schools. These Binet tests
and their derivatives were used widely
throughout Europe, UK and the US for the
following 60 years. In the UK, tests were later
*Former Chair Subcommittee for Practice & Research (2000–2004). Applicant for seat on Steering Committee for
Psychological Test Centre. Registered Test User (UK & US). UK Registered Expert Witness. Chartered Counselling & Health
Psychologist. Foundation Member of Register for Psychologists Specialising in Psychotherapy.
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
developed to determine at the age of 10 or 11
which type of school children would attend
(the 11-plus). These tests were now being used
to stream pupils and also to justify separate
schooling. Arguments were based on the idea
that ‘bright ‘children should not be held back
by the ‘dull’ and the idea that ‘dull’ children
should be offered extra facilities to compensate
for their natural disadvantage.
However, Terman (1919) in his introduction
to the manual for the first Stanford-Binet had
no such modern sensitivities and stated: ‘It is
safe to predict that in the near future intelligence
tests will bring tens of thousands of…high-grade
defectives under the surveillance and protection of
society. This will ultimately result in the curtailing
of the reproduction of feeble-mindedness and in the
elimination of enormous amounts of crime,
pauperism and industrial inefficiency. It is hardly
necessary to emphasise that the high-grade cases, of
the type now so frequently overlooked, are precisely
the ones whose guardianship it is most important
for the state to assume.’
Terman, in his comments on children with
high intelligence, went on to say: ‘…really
serious faults are not common among them, they are
nearly always socially adaptable, are sought after as
playmates and companions, they are leaders far
oftener than other children, and not withstanding
their many really superior qualities they are seldom
vain or spoiled.’
As tests developed they were introduced into
occupational settings. Tests of varying kinds were
used in order to select the ‘right’ employee for the
job offered. It is in this employment sphere that
personality and aptitude tests were developed.
5
The use of such personality tests in such circum-
stances is highly questionable. There is little
evidence to support their validity for predicting
subsequent job performance. The reasons for the
low validity is that personality tests ask about
preferences rather than measure demonstrable
constructs. The measures are based on self-report
items. They are, therefore, liable to distortion by
the applicant for the job, whether consciously or
unconsciously. The measures often use a partic-
ular kind of forced choice question format which
means that their predictive value is low (Jackson,
1996).
One of the most widely used tests in the
world is Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI). This is commonly used in
the US for employment applicants and also in
mental health settings. However, those who
take a closer look at its history have found its
Masculinity-femininity scale (Mf) to be a
notorious example of how a construct can be
made to appear scientific, measurable and,
therefore, valid. Perhaps the assumptions
being made by those establishing this
‘construct’ were clear with the use of ‘Mf’.
However, the subscale was not validated using
women at all. Heterosexual soldiers (or those
who had not yet come out as ‘gay’) were used
to produce the masculine criterion and 13
homosexual males responses were used to
supply the feminine criterion (Lewin, 1984).
In clinical and forensic settings measures of
depression, anxiety, suicide risk and many
others are now widely used to both assess
clients and monitor their ‘progress’. In some
CMHTs tests, such as the Beck Inventories, are
sent out to the client on the waiting list before
any human contact is made. Indeed, looking at
a global trend, tests are now being adminis-
tered and scored over the internet.
With such questions about the humanity,
reliability and validity of tests are there circum-
stances in which Counselling Psychologists
should or do consider their use? Despite the
strong concerns surrounding the use of
psychometric tests there are arguments for
their use by Counselling Psychologists
(Sequeira & Van Scoyoc, 2004).
The current use of tests falls into three main
categories: decision making, psychological
research, and self understanding. The primary
6 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
use of tests continues to be as an aid to decision
making, for example, what type of services
should be provided to an individual and
whether a person feels they have benefited
from the provision of that service. In research,
tests are used to help measure variables, to
explore whether changes have occurred and to
explore whether there are relationships
between cognitive, affective and behaviour
traits. In the area of self development some
humanistic psychologists such as Constance
Fischer (1994) and Finn and Tonsager (1997)
have broken away from the objections to
labelling and categorisation and explored the
use of tests and assessment tools to provide
clients with information to promote self under-
standing and positive growth. It is in this area
that counselling psychologists may find
knowledge of the use and application of tests
beneficial to their clients.
This edition of Counselling Psychology
Review aims to give just some examples of the
use of tests by Counselling Psychologists.
Those seeking to train in the use of tests
are advised to look carefully at what is
being offered, particularly those funding them-
selves for the Qualification or for continuing
development purposes. These is, as yet, no
competence standard set for clinical testing
(BPS Steering Committee on Test Standards
Q & A available from the Society’s website,
www.bps.org.uk/documents/psytesting.pdf).
Level A and B courses are to train in Occupational
testing. Whilst this gives the basics of theoretical
knowledge required by all those who administer
tests such as reliability, validity, T-tests, standard
deviations and so on, the difficulty for
Counselling Psychologists is that this is a training
in the selection of tests for use in employment
and recruitment. International guidelines are also
being developed with the co-operation of the
British Psychological Society and details of these
developments can be seen on the website
www.intestcom.org
An added difficulty for Counselling
Psychologists who wish to or are required to
use tests as part of their practice is the difficulty
obtaining them from test publishers. Many test
publishers do not at present allow Chartered
Counselling Psychologists to purchase their
tests.
The way forward?
The new list of competences for Counselling
Psychologists, whether taking the course route
or the Qualification (Independent route)
includes ‘an understanding of the use and
interpretation of tests and other assessment
procedures.’ I suggest that it is only from a
position of knowledge, even if does not sit
comfortably with your philosophical approach
or therapeutic model, that one can argue
competently for or against their use. I would
apply the same argument to the use of DSM-IV
and psychopharmacology.
It is hoped that this competence requirement
will help to eliminate the employment discrimi-
nation previously encountered in some posts
where at present Counselling Psychologists are
not employed because ‘you cannot do testing’ or
where a Chartered Counselling Psychologist
with a doctorate and several years of experience
administering and interpreting tests is informed
they have to ‘be under the supervision of a
Clinical Psychologist because Clinical
Psychologists are trained in testing’.
The British Psychological Society has estab-
lished the Psychological Test Centre which is
attempting to ensure professional standards
and ethical considerations are met when tests
are used in various settings. A certificate in
Clinical Testing is being discussed at the
Psychological Test Centre and there are
possible plans to incorporate this into the clin-
ical psychology training. The International Test
Commission is doing much to promote reliable
and competent testing. Do we need to incorpo-
rate a comparable training which ensures we
examine the doubts about such tests as well as
their possible usefulness? If we do not do so
will we be excluded from posts again?
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
References
Finn, S.E. & Tonsager, M.E. (1997).
Information-gathering and therapeutic
models of assessment: Complementary
paradigms. Psychological Assessment, 9,
374–385.
Fischer, C. (1994). Individualising psychological
assessment. Mehwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum & Associates.
Jackson, C. (1996). Understanding psychological
testing. Leicester: BPS Books.
Lewin, M. (1984). Psychology measures
femininity and masculinity: 2. From ‘13
gay men’ to the instrumental-expressive
distinction. In M.Lewin (Ed.), In the shadow
of the past: Psychology portrays the sexes.
New York: Columbia University Press.
Sequeira, H. & Van Scoyoc, S. (2002).
Divisional Round Table 2001: Should
Counselling Psychologists oppose the use
of DSM-IV and testing? Counselling
Psychology Review, 16(4), 44–48.
Sequeira, H. & Van Scoyoc, S. (2004)
Discussion paper on Psychological Testing.
Counselling Psychology Review, 19(2), 37–39.
Terman, L.M. (1919). Measurement of
intelligence. London: Harrap. In J. Rust & S.
Golombok (1989), Modern psychometrics:
The science of psychological assessment (p.7).
London: Routledge.
Correspondence
Susan Van Scoyoc
Suite 54, Dorset House,
Duke Street, Chelmsford,
Essex CM1 1TB.
E-mail: susan@twp-psychology.com
7
Using psychometrics in
an NHS addictions
service
Jo Ploszajski, Danestrete Health Centre,
Stevenage.
to see that the editor has
I
WAS PLEASED
chosen to dedicate an edition of Counselling
Psychology Review to the use of psycho-
metric testing, as I believe that our growing
knowledge of the workings of the brain at the
neuropsychological level means that
Counselling Psychologists need to take into
account any structural and functional
neuropsychological limitations patients may
have when we formulate their problems and
develop treatment plans. Sometimes, as I shall
show below, psychometric methods seem to be
the most efficient way of assessing structural
and functional deficits (or indeed strengths)
and yet little published information seems to
be available to guide the non-specialist
psychologist with limited NHS resources. I will
aim, therefore, in this essay, to provide an
outline of my rationale for using psychometric
tests as part of my role as a Counselling
Psychologist, indicate some of the practical
issues I have encountered, and give two exam-
ples of how I have used testing in the course of
assessing patients with suspected alcohol
induced dementia and suspected attention
deficit disorder.
Rationale: Why might
psychometric tests be useful to
patients?
1. Differential diagnosis/refined formulation
I work as a Counselling Psychologist in an
addictions service, which forms part of an NHS
Mental Health Trust. The majority of my work
comprises the usual mix of psychotherapy and
behaviour therapy, which typifies the work of
trying to help people overcome addictions.
However, in formulating the problems of
patients with substance misuse, it is clear, that
8 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
one cannot sensibly construct a formulation
without taking into account the functional and
structural effects which drugs of abuse have on
the brain. In most instances, knowledge of the
neuropsychology of substance misuse (e.g.
WHO, 2004) together with patients’ subjective
accounts of impairment, are sufficient to guide
problem formulation and treatment aims. This
is generally the case, when one can be reason-
ably confident that the patient’s brain is
functioning within relatively normal limits.
However, in some instances, for example the
case of dementia and attention deficit disorder,
which crop up regularly in substance misuse,
there is, by definition, an assumed enduring
cognitive impairment, which would limit both
the extent of recovery and the methods of
achieving recovery. With both these conditions,
there is the possibility for medication but there
are also a number of similar conditions,
requiring different treatments, which give rise
to similar subjective experience. For example,
memory loss in early old age could be due to
alcohol damage or Alzheimer’s disease,
amongst other diseases; problems with concen-
tration and organisation could be due to
withdrawal from amphetamine, attention
deficit disorder, anxiety, hypervigilance, hypo-
mania, etc. To be able to distinguish between
these conditions, we need to differentiate
between different types of memory and
different types of attention. In addition, as
language ability is preserved in alcohol-related
dementia, I have found that it is tempting to
underestimate the extent of person’s impair-
ment, if one forms a general impression from
interview data alone. Consequently, I have
found that the combination of thorough
psychosocial history plus data from psycho-
metric tests provides a more comprehensive
data set from which to construct the formula-
tion and treatment plan, compared with
discursive methods alone.
2. Ego strengthening
In responding to requests for assessment of
suspected deficits in attention or memory, it is
probably helpful to bear in mind Festinger’s
Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954),
which suggests that we place greater salience
on objective methods of self-evaluation than
subjective methods. Consequently, it is appro-
priate to have concerns about possible loss of
self-esteem if a measured deficit is identified,
as patients may tend to believe this data more
strongly than subjective experience. However,
in my experience, patients seem to find
measured deficits, placed in the context of a
comprehensive explanation for the deficit and
prognosis for amelioration, to be an easier
concept to come terms with, than, unquantified
feelings of constant struggling with aspects of
daily life. It seemed to me that the effect of the
psychometric data, compared with the clinical
interview data, could be likened to the differ-
ence between seeing a photograph of yourself,
compared with knowing what you look like.
Although only a snap-shot in time, it’s some-
times helpful to see yourself, objectively, from
the outside. Thus, in keeping with both
cognitive and psychodynamic theories,
psychometric data can be used as a source of
evidence to facilitate ego strengthening.
Practical issues
1. Abstinence
In the past, I have used psychometric tests to
demonstrate the acute effects of alcohol on the
brain to an older heavy drinker, who was still
drinking heavily, but denying that it had any
effect. However, mostly I have wanted to be
able to assess structural deficits in brain func-
tion, rather than the functional effects of the
substance. This means achieving a period of a
least one month abstinence prior to testing.
Research seems to suggest that for alcohol,
recovery time can be variable (Goldman, 1995),
so that one month may or may not be sufficient
recovery time for any particular individual.
I am not aware of equivalent data for ampheta-
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
mine, although there is evidence of effects
lasting for as much as five years (Kunio et al.,
2000). Therefore, on-going allowance for the
potential for further recovery needs to be made
in any assessment.
2. Competence and battery selection
My counselling psychology training at the City
University, provided training to BPS Level A in
Competence for Occupational Testing, which
provided competence in test delivery and
interpretation, but did not provide training in
specific tests for use with clinical problems.
Texts, such as Adams et al. (1996) and Snyder
and Nussbaum (1998), provided excellent
background information to clinical conditions,
but recommend test batteries which were very
extensive and drew sub-tests from several
different batteries not available in my depart-
ment. However, in the case of assessing for
alcohol induced dementia, my colleague from
the Elderly Mental Health team, suggested
trying a new battery, the Repeatable Battery for
the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status
(RBANS), recently published by The
Psychological Corporation for the assessment
of dementia. It was both inexpensive and quick
to administer and gave me confidence that it
was comprehensive for the purpose designed,
as opposed to a piecemeal collection of
subtests. Despite the limitations regarding
validity discussed in Stebbins and Wilson,
(1998), I also use the National Adult Reading
Test (NART), to estimate pre-morbid capacity.
I have found that estimated pre-morbid
predicted IQ has correlated closely with the
language subtests in RBANS, perhaps
suggesting that alcohol induced dementia may
affect reading ability less than other dementias
and head trauma. A further limitation of the
NART is that most patients find this test
demoralising, as even a person of average
intellect will not be able to read 25 of the 50
words correctly. An alternative would be the
vocabulary test of the WAIS-III, but at present
this is not available in my department.
In selecting tests for attention deficit, I was
more restricted, as although the RBANS
subtests for memory and attention were appro-
priate, the department had no tests for
response selection and control, such as Trail
9
making, Stroop or the Wisconsin Card sort, Case examples:
which may have provided helpful additional 1. Psychometric tests for alcohol induced
data. I was, however, able to use the Brown Test dementia
for Attention Deficit and NART for pre-morbid DSM-IV-TR distinguishes between alcohol
function. In addition, because part of the induced persisting amnesia due to thiamine
differential diagnosis required data gathering deficiency (Korsakoff syndrome) and alcohol
for the possibility of axis I anxiety or depres- induced persisting dementia, in which
sion and axis II avoidant traits which could memory and at least one other cognitive func-
contribute to lack of concentration, I included tion is affected. However, current research such
the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale as Oslin et al. (1998) or Smith and Atkinson
(DASS) and the Young Schema questionnaire. (1995) suggests that it would be appropriate to
Although the latter is not standardised and review and refine the DSM-IV-TR categories
consequently cannot provide normative data, it and their review suggests that the following
does, through a long series of self-statements are required for a differential diagnosis:
which the patient can take away to complete, ● Deficit in short-term memory function;
provide extensive ‘personality’ data very effi- ● Deficit in visuospacial functions;
ciently, from which patterns of interpersonal ● Spared language;
behaviour can be inferred, for subsequent ● History of drinking;
further discussion with the patient. ● Peripheral neuropathy;
● Decline in cognitive function halts or
3. Process of data gathering improves with abstinence.
Even when patients have been referred for an It is these features which I aim to assess
assessment of cognitive function, because using the combination of psychosocial history,
people with addictive behaviour often also RBANS and NART.
have other axis I or axis II disorders, during my
first meeting with the patient, I aim to complete Case example
a full psychosocial history, in order to develop Mr P, a 60-year-old married man with a
an initial formulation which takes into account suspected long history of secret drinking (indi-
four main factors: cated by partial self-disclosure and abnormal
● pre-morbid personality, both genetic and liver function tests) was referred by a CMHT
psychosocial; psychiatrist, after a claimed period of eight
● traumatic brain damage, both physical and months’ abstinence. An opinion on whether
emotional; Mr P was suffering from Korsakoff syndrome
● past and present stressors; and (see Kopelman, 1995, in addition to Oslin et al.,
● the neuropsychological and neurophysio- 1998 ) was requested.
logical effects of substance misuse in the I proceeded as outlined above and obtained
acute phase of use, ‘withdrawal’ effects and the following test results:
any lasting impact on brain function. NART: 98 i.e. average for the population
The second session is then used for the RBANS:
administration of psychometric tests, and a
further session may be needed for preliminary Cognitive Standardised Percentile
feedback from the tests and the administration function score rank
of a structured questionnaire to explore specific Immediate
qualitative data. Finally the fourth session is 61 0.4
memory
used to summarise and discuss the findings
Visuospacial/
and their implications for further interven- 64 1
constructional
tions.
Language 104 63
Attention 94 37
Delayed
52 0.1
memory

10 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

 These clearly show impaired memory and
visuospacial function, so that a diagnosis of
possible alcohol-induced dementia was indi-
cated. However, as the patient had not been
offered thiamine supplements, it was
suggested that he tried these for three months,
and was then reassessed.
The second assessment using the B form of
RBANS produced the following:
Cognitive Standardised Percentage
function score change from
previous score
Immediate
81 +33%
memory
Visuospacial/
96 +44%
constructional
Language 102 0 ● Hypomania.
Attention 94 0 In addition, people who have felt chroni-
Delayed
92 +77%
memory
which indicate that the patient’s memory
impairment was reversible and at this stage a
diagnosis of alcohol-induced persisting
dementia would not be appropriate.
In addition, liver function tests showed
considerable improvement, but not as much as
would have been expected with complete absti-
nence. Consequently, the combination of
improved memory and attention (facilitating
the ability to think about the problem), together
with physiological test data indicating possible
on-going drinking and the potential for relapse,
provided me with a strong basis for further
motivational work to reinstate abstinence.
2. Psychometric tests in attention deficit
disorder
Several people have referred themselves to our
service who use street amphetamine at a
moderate daily level. They find this helps to
give them the feeling of being alert and focused
and enables them to get on with every-day
living. They say that the amphetamine helps
them to feel ‘normal’ and wonder whether this
means that they are self-medicating for atten-
tion deficit disorder. Anecdotal experience with
several amphetamine users indicates to me that
it is quite common to use amphetamine in an
on-going daily low level basis, without
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
increasing amounts to get the same effects, in a
way that many people seem to use cannabis,
alcohol, tea or coffee to adjust their mood and
energy. Thus the absence of escalation in habit,
does not in itself indicate self-medication of
clinically abnormal cognitive function.
However, these people often have experienced
considerable disadvantages in their early
family circumstances and whilst it is possible
that these problems have arisen or been exacer-
bated due to deficits in the patient’s attention
system, it is also possible for problems with
attention to be secondary to other conditions,
such as:
● Disorders of response inhibition system;
● Depression;
● Anxiety/hypervigilance;
cally anxious or lacking in self confidence may
find that the boost to confidence, alertness and
‘feeling good’, which they may experience with
moderate amphetamine use, may well make
them feel ‘normal’.
Consequently, to assess these patients, data
is needed on cognitive function related to
memory and attention, as well as measures of
present mood and self/social schema content,
to indicate enduring disposition. Although
Adams et al. (1996) provide a very helpful and
comprehensive guide to the ideal range of tests
one might use to assess cognitive function in
attention deficit disorder, as already
mentioned, most of these were not available to
me and consequently, I used the following:
(i) Self report scales:
● Depression anxiety stress scale (DASS);
● Young Schema questionnaire;
● Brown ADD Scales.
(ii) Psychometric data
● NART (2nd ed.);
● RBANS.
I have given the outcome of these tests in
the appendix for a 23-year-old single woman,
Teri, as the reader may wish to review these.
However, I interpreted these as indicating that
Teri’s presenting problems with memory and
attention, were probably not due to current
anxiety or depression, but could be due to
schemas built up in childhood and or, the after
effects of stopping an amphetamine habit of
11
several years. My reasoning was as follows:
The Brown’s scales indicated a greater problem
with memory than attention in day-to-day
experience. However, RBANS seemed to indi-
cate the opposite, and in particular, that
although her attention score was low, once
material had been ‘registered’, Teri’s memory
function was normal. Barkley (1997) argues
that it is not typical of people suffering from
attention deficit to find measurable attention
deficits in psychometric testing, because the
stimulation of the test context facilitates
focused attention. Teri had also rated social
isolation, emotional inhibition and unrelenting
standards higher than insufficient self-control
and defectiveness/shame on the Young
Questionnaire, which suggested to me that
psychosocial problems may be primary and
neurorological control secondary. Conse-
quently, I thought that on balance, the
likelihood was that this pattern of results was
due to a combination of loss of attention due to
amphetamine ‘withdrawal’ and disturbance of
concentration ability due to historical stressors.
It is normal to observe strategies for
completing tests and to discuss significant
features both of the self-report and ‘objective’
tests with patients after they have completed
them. In Teri’s case, such discussions identified
several features indicative of Asperger’s
syndrome. For example, she said that she was
meticulous in her work to ensure that objects
were carefully lined up; she enjoyed taking
mechanical objects apart from an early age for
no particular reason and enjoyed watching
vinyl records turning. She also felt that she did
not fit in at school, but enjoyed helping the
caretaker, rather than attending lessons. These
features, together with her subjective experi-
ence of social isolation led me to spend a
further session working through a structured
questionnaire drawn up to elicit data on
whether this condition could also be a part of
the overall presentation.
Having gathered quite extensive historical
data, I eventually concluded, that although
there were Asperger’s features prior to drug
misuse, these could be explained as conse-
quences of an emotionally remote and
controlling maternal parenting style, leading to
obsessional features, difficulties relating to
12
others and her frustrated need for communica-
tion, which manifested as controlled
destructiveness and disobedience/rebellious-
ness as she grew older. Present obsessional
features could be due to amphetamine use
and/or loss of confidence during the ‘with-
drawal’ period. I further felt that although her
emotional communication during the inter-
views was very restrained her eye contact was
good. She also expressed a strong desire to
learn to communicate successfully, and had
already worked hard on developing assertive-
ness. I felt that on balance it was best for this
patient to continue to work on maintaining
abstinence, developing her social skills and
gaining security by continuing with her
recently obtained employment and obtaining
housing. If, after a longer period of abstinence,
say two years, she continued to experience
problems with attention, memory or relating to
others, a reassessment may be appropriate.
Conclusion
Psychological tests can provide quick access
both to subjective and objective cognitive func-
tioning data. They need not interfere with the
therapeutic relationship, if used sensitively and
can be integrated with psychotherapeutic tech-
niques in terms of gathering evidence (CBT) or
ego-strengthening through reality testing
(psychodynamic). Many counselling psycholo-
gists will be working with clients in whom
cognitive function within the normal range
cannot automatically be assumed and conse-
quently, without the resource of psychometric
tests where appropriate, they may run the risk
of working towards an unattainable level of
functioning and eventual disappointment.
Despite the risks of ‘labelling’, it may some-
times facilitate mental health to have a medical
diagnosis of an enduring structural impair-
ment, in order to tailor both medical and
psychological interventions. Alternatively, as
has been the majority of my experience so far,
the measurements may indicate that a
suspected structural deficit is probably a conse-
quence of the transitory effects of substance
use, thus reinforcing motivation to abstain and
to develop other coping mechanisms.
I hope, in future, to be able to increase my
resources by acquiring the Psychological
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
Corporation’s test battery for Frontal Executive
Function (D-KEFS), which will provide the
additional tests required for a more compre-
hensive assessment of attention deficit. In
addition, as there is some evidence that the
children of ‘alcoholics’ have a congenital deficit
in executive functions (Oscar-Burman et al.,
1997) it may be that identification of such
deficits may inform treatment options. There is
also potential for developing testing for
suspected HIV dementia in some of our
‘chaotic’ HIV positive patients. Perhaps some
of our assumptions that these patients are
choosing a chaotic life-style, underestimates
the effects of the disease on the brain, which
can occur even prior to the development of
AIDS (Lopez & Becker, 1998).
The editor of this edition has asked me to
comment on aspects of my experience which I
believe were specifically related to being a
counselling psychologist as opposed to Clinical
Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Psychiatrist or
Nurse. In working with patients, my primary
concern is to try to understand how an indi-
vidual’s mind is functioning and how I can
help that individual to understand and if
possible overcome problems they may have
encountered in using their mind to govern
their body’s interactions with their environ-
ment. To understand the mind’s workings, we
need to take into account present and past
structural and functional influences.
Counselling Psychology provides the breath of
knowledge to use the methodology of
psychotherapy and psychological science to
gather and integrate these different kinds of
data, always holding in mind that these data
are only valuable to the extent that they can be
used for therapeutic purposes. My guess is that
psychotherapists, psychiatrists and nurses may
not have sufficient knowledge of the meaning-
fulness and limitations of interpretation of test
data without additional training, but I would
not expect Clinical Psychologist colleagues to
approach the problem significantly differently
from me.
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
References
Adams, R.L., Parsons, O.A., Culbertson, J.L &
Nixon, S.J. (Eds.) (1996). Neuropsychology
for clinical practice: Etiology, assessment and
treatment of common neurological disorders.
Washington DC: American Psychological
Association.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social
comparison processes. Human Relations, 7,
117–140.
Goldman, M.S. (1995). Recovery of cognitive
functioning in alcoholics. Alcohol Research
and Health, 19(2).
Kopelman, M. (1995). The Korsakoff Syndrome.
British Journal of Psychiatry, 166(2).
Kunio,Y., Shigenori, I., Takeo, I. & Kimihiko, G.
(2000). Studies of amphetamine or
methamphetamine psychosis in Japan.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
914.
Lopez, O. & Becker, J. (1998). HIV infection
and associated conditions. In P.J. Snyder &
P.D. Nussbaum (Eds.), Clinical
neuropsychology: A pocket handbook for
assessment. Washington DC: American
Psychological Association.
Oscar-Burman, M., Shagrin, B., Evert, D. &
Epstein, C. (1997). Impairments of brain
and behavior: The neurological effects of
alcohol. Alcohol Health and Research World,
21(1).
Oslin, D., Atkinson, R., Smith, D. & Hendrie,
H. (1998). Alcohol-related dementia:
Proposed clinical criteria. International
Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 13, 203–212.
Smith, D. & Atkinson, R. (1995). Alcoholism
and dementia. International Journal of the
Addictions, 30(13 & 14).
Snyder, P.J. & Nussbaum, P.D. (Eds.) (1998).
Clinical neuropsychology: A pocket handbook
for assessment. Washington DC: American
Psychological Association.
Stebbins, G. & Wilson, R. (1998). Estimation of
premorbid intelligence in neurologically
impaired individuals. In P.J. Snyder & P.D.
Nussbaum (Eds.), Clinical neuropsychology:
A pocket handbook for assessment.
Washington DC: American Psychological
Association.
13
World Health Organisation (2004). Correspondence
Neuroscience of psychoactive substance Jo Ploszajski
use and dependence. Geneva: WHO. Chartered Counselling Psychologist,
(Also available for download online at Community Drug and Alcohol Teams
www.who.int/substance_abuse/ (North Herts & Stevenage),
publications/psychoactives/en/) Danestrete Health Centre,
Southgate,
Stevenage,
Herts. SG1 1HB.
Tel: 01438 781457 (day)
01234 215695 (evening)
E-mail: Jo.Ploszajski@hpt.nhs.uk

APPENDIX

TERI’S SCORES:

Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS)

An estimate of depression, anxiety and stress in the past week.

Depression Mild
Anxiety Normal
Stress Normal

Comments:
The highest D score was for ‘I just couldn’t seem to get going’, which she felt applied to a
considerable degree, most of the time.
Other responses suggested moderate anhedonia.

Young Schema Questionnaire

Social isolation 27
Emotional inhibition 23
Unrelenting standards 22
Emotional deprivation 21
Insufficient self-control 21
Mistrust/abuse 20
Self-sacrifice 17
Defectiveness/shame 12
Failure 12
Vulnerability 11
Subjugation 11
Dependency/incompetence 10
Entitlement 10
Enmeshment 9
Abandonment 8

14 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

Comments:
She felt the following described her perfectly:
● I’m fundamentally different from other people.
● I don’t fit in.
● I must be the best at most of what I do; I can’t accept second best.
Other strong feelings were:
● I have not felt listened to or understood.
● I feel alienated and don’t belong.
● I can’t seem to discipline myself to complete routine tasks.
● I become easily frustrated and give up.
● I have rarely been able to stick to my resolutions.
● I am a good person because I think of others more than myself.
● I find it embarrassing to express my feelings to others.
● I find it hard to be warm and spontaneous and control myself so much that people think I’m
unemotional.

Brown ADD Scales

Raw score Percentile*

Memory 18 96
Attention 13 62
Activation 8 51
Effort 2 < 50
Affect 1 ≤ 50
*Percentile: indicates the proportion of the population who would have this score or less,
i.e. a score of 96 suggests that four per cent of the population would have a higher score.

Comments:
Her total score placed her in the ‘probable but not certain’ category.
High scores were given for:
● Losing concentration when reading.
● Having to re-read to make things stick.
● Disorganised.
● Forgets to do what she intended to do.
● Is excessively rigid/perfectionist.
● Daydreaming.
● Frequent mistakes in written work.
● Difficulty memorising information at work, names ,etc.
She commented that:
● She has good physical stamina, but gets exhausted with mental activities.
● Feelings of lacking energy and apathy are much less now than they used to be.
● She has worked hard on developing assertiveness and stress reduction strategies.

(iii) Psychometric data

National Adult Reading Test (NART) (2nd ed.)

22 errors : Predicted full-scale IQ : 103 i.e. About average.

Comments:
She said that although she found sustained reading and writing difficult, she knew how to read
and write without any specific problems.

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004 15

Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS)

Index score*
Visuospacial/constructional 102
Delayed memory 99
Language 96
Immediate memory 87
Attention 64

Comments:
Assuming her general ability level is about 103 (estimated by NART), her scores on RBANS
would be expected to be about 100 +/– about 10.
Her scores on immediate memory and attention are below what one would expect.
Her delayed memory score was about comparable with her overall ‘intellect’, which suggests
that her reduced immediate memory score could be due to a restricted ability to hold
information in order to process it.
She used explicit meaning-linking strategies to aid her memory.

TEST PUBLISHERS

Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scales

Thomas Brown, The Psychological Corporation,
Harcourt Brace & Co., San Antonio, USA.

Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS)

Available for unrestricted download
Psychology Foundation of Australia
www.psy.unsw.edu.au/Groups/Dass

National Adult Reading Test (NART) (2nd ed.)

H. Nelson & J. Wilson
Nfer Nelson, www.nfer-nelson.co.uk

Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS)

Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS)
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III)
The Psychological Corporation
Harcourt Education
www.harcourt-uk.com

Young Schema Questionnaire (Long form)

Jeffrey Young
Cognitive Therapy Centres of New York & Connecticut
www.schematherapy.com

16 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

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Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004 17

Embracing psychometric
assessment:
Enhancing a cognitive-
behavioural eating disorders
practice through the
qualitative use of self-report
measures
Courtney G. Raspin & Pavlo Kanellakis,
Royal Free Eating Disorders Service, London.
psychometric assessment in
T
HE ROLE OF
counselling psychology continues to be
a topic of debate within the discipline.
The reasons for this are varied, but it is largely
because these tests are the offspring of the
‘scientific psychology,’ and thus emphasise
‘objectively observable facts’ as well as the
operationalisation of human constructs. Some
say that these ideals are in opposition to the
humanistic underpinnings of counselling
psychology whose super ordinate foci are a
client’s subjective experiences, feelings, and
values.
As two Counselling Psychologists working
in the NHS, we sympathise with this perspec-
tive and acknowledge the importance of being
guided by the philosophy of counselling
psychology when using psychological tests
(Sequeira & Van Scoyoc, 2004). What exactly
this means, however, is sometimes unclear, and
varies greatly from practitioner to practitioner.
For us, this means a careful consideration of
how and when these measures are introduced,
as well as a detailed exploration and creative
use of clients’ answers to both individual ques-
tions and scores on test subscales.
This paper is an effort to briefly outline
how we strive to translate the philosophy of
counselling psychology into the use of self-
report measures. In doing so, we hope to model
how self-report questionnaires designed
18
primarily for outcome can be used qualita-
tively, thus providing not only valuable
outcome data, but also an indispensable oppor-
tunity to develop the therapeutic relationship,
better plan treatment, and harness the subjec-
tive experience of our clients.
Before venturing further, we want to
acknowledge that our approach is not unique;
indeed, we have colleagues from a variety of
professional backgrounds who sometimes use
measures in this way. However, we see a
majority of colleagues grudgingly administer
measures (as the powers that be often require
them to do so for purposes of outcome), score
them, and never look at them again. We also
acknowledge that our approach is grounded
within our fondness for cognitive behavioural
interventions, and thus may not be congruent
with all models of psychological therapy (e.g.
psychoanalytic therapy). We hope that
describing our experience in an eating disor-
ders service will stimulate clinicians across
models to use self-report measures in qualita-
tive ways that complement their ways of
working.
The Royal Free Eating Disorders
Service: Who we are and the
self-report measures we use
The Royal Free Eating Disorders Service is a
specialist eating disorders service located in
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
north London. The team is multidisciplinary,
and is comprised of psychiatric nurses, a
family therapist, an occupational therapist, a
dietician, a dance therapist, an art therapist, a
massage therapist as well as both clinical and
counselling psychologists. The team is led by a
consultant psychiatrist and the service
manager is trained as both a nurse and family
therapist.
We regularly use three psychological
measures within the service: The first is the
Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI; Garner,
Olmstead & Polivy, 1983). The EDI is a 64-item
self-report measure designed to assess psycho-
logical and behavioural traits common in
anorexia and bulimia along eight subscales:
Drive for Thinness, Bulimia, Body Dissatisfaction,
Ineffectiveness, Perfectionism, Interpersonal
Distrust, Interoceptive Awareness and Maturity
Fears.
The second test we use is the Bulimia
Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE;
Henderson & Freeman, 1987). The BITE is a
33-item self-report measure assessing binge-
eating and compensatory behaviours.
Participants receive two scores – a Symptom
score, which assesses the presence of behav-
iours, thoughts, and attitudes consistent with
bulimia nervosa, and a Severity score, which
measures the frequency of bingeing and
compensatory behaviours.
The third test we use is The Beck
Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer,
Ball & Ranieri, 1996). The BDI-II is a 21-item
self-report measure that provides an estimate
of the overall severity of depression. Each item
is rated on a four-point scale ranging from
0 to 3.
Introducing self-report measures
It is common practice across the NHS to either
mail measures to clients before the first assess-
ment or have them complete measures on site
prior to the assessment interview. Further, the
instructions for completing measures are
unfortunately often glossed over and rushed.
We disagree with these practices. Indeed, they
are in conflict with the International Test
Commission Guidelines (2000): ‘…the competent
test user will: (2.5.1) Establish rapport by
welcoming test-takers and briefing them in a posi-
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
tive fashion. (2.5.2) Act to reduce test-taker anxiety
and avoid creating or reinforcing unnecessary
anxiety…’ (p.21).
In accordance with these guidelines, we
believe it is important to pay close attention to
when and how measures are introduced, as
these factors provide an opportunity for
empathic engagement and can profoundly
influence the development of a therapeutic
partnership.
When?
With many client groups, shame often plays a
role in the experience of oneself and one’s diffi-
culties. This is especially true in the field of
eating disorders (Sifter, Barlow, Marshall &
Tangney, 1995). The self-report measures
described above ask highly personal questions
about the client and their difficulties. Hence,
when we ask clients to complete these
measures, we are in essence asking, ‘Please tell
me about your most intimate thoughts, feelings
and behaviours – especially those about which
you are most ashamed.’
To assume one can do this without first
meeting and establishing rapport we believe is
presumptuous. In addition, we believe that
doing so has the potential to intimidate the
client and harm the relationship. Add to this
the possibility that the client’s written language
skills are poor (a common occurrence given the
multinational population within London) and
there is potential to alienate the client and
undermine the therapeutic relationship.
To avoid such transgressions, we ask clients
to complete the questionnaires following an
hour-long assessment interview. This gives the
assessor time to engage the client and hope-
fully foster an environment of trust and
develop rapport. Further, one can assess the
degree to which shame and secrecy play a part
in their experience of an eating disorder. If a
client is clearly hesitant about sharing their
experience, then this should be explored
during the assessment (e.g. ‘It seems that this is
a very difficult thing for you talk about; how is
it for you to share these things with me?’ ‘What
did you expect my reaction to be?’) Through
taking these steps, we hope to create an atmos-
phere of ‘non-judging’ collaboration – an
atmosphere that lays the groundwork for the
19
smooth introduction of self-report measures
and strong working alliance.
How?
Once this groundwork has been laid, we close
the assessment interview by summarising the
client’s difficulties through reflection, checking
that our understanding is accurate, acknow-
ledging their strength in disclosing their
difficulties. It is at this time that we introduce
the measures:
Now that we have spoken about your reasons for
coming, I’d like to show you some
questionnaires that will allow us to better
understand what is happening for you and how
we might be able to work together to improve
things for you. These questionnaires also help
our service see how we are doing, and may be
used for research purposes. Of course, if they are
used for research, you will remain completely
anonymous and results will be presented only in
group format.
How does that sound to you?
The client hopefully says ‘OK’. If ‘no’ is the
answer, then we attend to any questions or
concerns. We have rarely had an occasion when
the completion of measures has been refused,
although if this is the case, this refusal and
reasons behind it gives the therapist a plethora
of qualitative information that can be
addressed later in therapy.
These first two measures (EDI and BITE) ask
some questions about your thoughts, feelings
and behaviours – particularly around food and
weight. I realise that you have already told me
much about your eating disorder, but this could
help us discover some things that we might have
missed during our short assessment. This
measure (BDI) asks a bit about your mood and
how you have been feeling over the last two
weeks. (At this point, we show clients the
measures and provide instructions about
their completion.)
Do you have any questions or concerns about
completing these?
Again, we attend to any potential concerns.
If the client says ‘no’, we ensure they have a pen
or pencil, and leave them to complete the
measures.
The above description of ‘when’ and ‘how’
we introduce self-report measures demon-
20
strates our efforts to use them as an opportu-
nity to engage clients in the therapeutic
process. Through first establishing rapport, we
hope to put clients at ease and to identify and
explore any issues (such as shame) that may
inhibit their likelihood of accurately
completing measures. Through our specific
dialogue (and of course, this varies depending
upon the client’s needs), we hope to model our
role as ‘working with’ rather than ‘working on’
them in an effort to improve the quality of their
lives.
Using individual questions and
subscale scores to facilitate
treatment
Following this introduction, we score measures
and look at answers to individual questions and
subscale scores prior to the first therapy
meeting. This allows us to formulate much
richer potential treatment plans and initial case
formulations than if we had only done the
assessment interview. In initial therapy sessions,
we review answers as a means to forming
shared treatment goals. Further, items and
subscales can be referenced throughout therapy
to stimulate discussion, gauge progress, or in
the case of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
(CBT), to introduce the model, as well as
challenge negative automatic thoughts,
dysfunctional assumptions or core beliefs.
To illustrate how we use the EDI, BDI-II,
and BITE in our therapeutic work, we have
compiled the following three case examples
based on our experiences. In order to protect
our clients’ anonymity, each case example
represents a composite of several clients.
Example 1: Claire
Claire was a 19-year-old young woman with
bulimia nervosa. Two factors that clearly
contributed to the maintenance of her bulimic
symptoms were her persistent belief that she
was overweight and her overall poor body
image. By all objective standards, Claire’s body
was perfectly normal (in fact, she had a low
normal body mass index). In addition to trig-
gering her to restrict her diet, her distorted
body image often prevented her from going
out with friends (nothing looked right on her
‘fat’ body) and inhibited her ability to enjoy a
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
sexual relationship with her boyfriend (she was
always focusing on how ‘horrible’ her body
looked rather than the moment). When asked
what she specifically disliked about her body,
she was unable to attribute levels of dislike to
different body parts. Rather, she replied
emphatically that she hated her whole body
–’it’s flabby all over and I can’t stand any of it.’
As expected, Claire’s Body Dissatisfaction
subscale score on the EDI confirmed her poor
body image and together with the assessment,
formed a clear potential treatment goal. One
potential starting point came from her specific
answers to the Body Dissatisfaction subscale
items of the EDI. While her overall score was
high, her individual answers indicated that she
indeed did like some her body parts more than
others: I am satisfied with the shape of my body –
Sometimes; I think my thighs are the right size –
Never; I like the shape of my buttocks – Rarely; My
stomach is the right size – Sometimes.
When this variability was pointed out to
her, Claire was curious to see that she in fact
did feel more strongly about some parts of her
body than others, and led to a discussion of
how satisfied or dissatisfied she was with other
body parts (e.g. calves, arms, breasts). The
enabled Claire and her therapist to create a
‘Body Dissatisfaction Hierarchy’ which was
then used as a part of an exposure program to
improve her body image.
This variability in body dislike also created
an opportunity to introduce the cognitive
model. Through looking at her statement, ‘[My
whole body] is flabby and I can’t stand any of
it’, cognitive errors were introduced, and Claire
quickly identified her use ‘all or nothing
thinking’ and ‘mental filter’. Her use of these
errors became themes throughout the therapy,
as Claire discovered they also caused her
distress in other life spheres.
Claire’s progress was monitored
throughout the course of therapy by
completing the EDI at different intervals. This
data was especially helpful when Claire felt
discouraged, as it provided some objective
evidence of her improvement over time.
Example 2: Duncan
Duncan was a 27-year-old man with bulimia
nervosa. During assessment, Duncan had
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
difficulty maintaining eye contact and fidgeted
with his jacket. While he was able to report his
bulimic symptoms (i.e. frequency of bingeing
and vomiting), he could access neither his
thoughts nor his emotions related the eating
disorder. He often needed questions repeated
and appeared confused in response to ques-
tions about his thinking or feelings. He could
only say that he was feeling ‘bad’ and that he
wanted to stop feeling that way. When asked
what he meant by ‘bad,’ he responded by
saying, ‘I don’t know – just out of it.’
It was difficult to know where to begin in
helping Duncan to overcome his difficulties, as
he struggled to express anything but the most
concrete facts about his eating disorder.
Duncan’s self-report measures helped to
stimulate potential starting points. His overall
BDI score indicated he was significantly
depressed. While this corroborated some of his
behaviour during the assessment (the lack of
concentration and slow response time), his
specific answers added texture to the picture
sketched during assessment. Moreover, it
provided information about his internal experi-
ence that might have taken several sessions to
access otherwise: I am too tired or fatigued to do
most of the things I used to do; I sleep a lot less than
usual; I don’t have enough energy to do anything;
It’s hard for me to keep my mind on anything for
very long.
These answers provided clear problem
areas for Duncan: his sleep, his concentration,
and his energy levels. Second, his low energy
levels and lack of concentration suggested that
lengthy homework assignments were not
appropriate for him. (We often use the BDI to
establish what type of homework might be
most appropriate, as assigning tasks are not
achievable can reinforce feelings of failure.)
Duncan’s EDI scores were also helpful in
generating potential treatment goals. Of partic-
ular interest was his high score on the
Interoceptive Awareness subscale of the EDI: I get
frightened when my feelings are too strong – Often;
I worry that my feelings will get out of control –
Always; I get confused to what emotion I am feeling
– Often; When I am upset, I don’t know if I am sad,
frightened or angry – Often. His answers
suggested that he might benefit from some
psychoeducational work on emotional literacy.
21
Further, his worry about tolerating emotional
distress suggested he could benefit from mind-
fulness training and some behavioural
experiments focused on testing alternative
coping strategies.
Indeed, when these answers were reviewed
in the first therapy session, Duncan agreed that
these were problem areas. He considered his
difficulty sleeping to be the most distressing
behavioural difficulty and thus an initial goal
was mutually formed. Further, Duncan was
curious about the concept of emotional literacy,
and felt relieved to hear that identifying
emotions was something he might learn to do
better.
With regard to goals focused on reducing
his bulimic symptoms, Duncan’s BITE scores
indicated the frequency with which he
engaged in different bulimic behaviours
(taking diet pills, taking diuretics, bingeing,
vomiting, and laxative use). This information
provided a starting point for discussion about
which symptoms to tackle first and which ones
would be most difficult to overcome.
Example 3: Annie
Annie was a 19-year-old young woman with a
two-year history of anorexia nervosa. She was
a college athlete, and began to diet when her
running coach told her she should lose some
weight to increase her speed on the track. Her
seemingly innocuous diet soon developed into
anorexia nervosa.
Annie’s answers on all measures indicated
that she was a perfectionist, highly self-critical
and had low self-esteem. Her answers to items
on the Perfectionism subscale of the EDI were as
follows: Only outstanding performance is good
enough in my family – Always; I hate being less
than best at things – Usually; I feel I must do things
perfectly, or not do them at all – Usually.
Annie’s answers allowed for a smooth and
personalised introduction to the cognitive
behavioural model. This was done by
rephrasing one of the questions from the EDI:
‘Can you tell me about a time when you believed
only the best would do?’ Annie’s description of
this event provided all information necessary
to illustrate an ABC analysis. Further, as this
event was a ‘critical incident’ for her, this
example also served to describe how critical
22
incidences influence the development of core
beliefs, assumptions, and thoughts.
Some of Annie’s answers to BDI-II items
were as follows: I blame myself for everything bad
that happens; As I look back, I see a lot of failures;
I feel more worthless compared to other people;
I have much greater difficulty in making decisions
than I used to. Her feelings of worthlessness and
past failure led to a discussion of thinking
errors, and Annie identified her frequent use of
‘personalisation’ and ‘discounting the posi-
tive’. This led to devising behavioural
experiments to test the beliefs that maintain her
low self-esteem. Further, her difficulty in
making decisions (acknowledged through the
BDI-II) was addressed by teaching her
problem-solving skills. Annie welcomed this
learning, as this difficulty often contributed to
her low mood and anxiety.
Conclusion
The above illustrates some of the ways we use
the EDI, BDI-II, and BITE in our practice. Our
experience is such that trust and rapport can be
developed through a mindful and interactive
introduction to measures. We also develop
richer case formulations, create more informed
initial treatment goals, and monitor progress
throughout therapy through exploring scores
on measure subscales and individual items.
Moreover, as answers to these items come
directly from our clients, they provide a rich
sample of their qualitative experience and
subjective world.
Of course, our use of these measures is only
a small sampling of how they can be qualita-
tively integrated into a psychological practice.
The directions our sessions take when answers
to self-report measures are used as starting
points continuously impress us. We hope that
our experience will stimulate other practi-
tioners to experiment with the self-report
measures they use within their practices, as
they can be valuable tools for discovery
throughout the therapeutic process.
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
References Correspondence
Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., Ball, R. & Ranieri, W.F. Courtney G. Raspin & Pavlo Kanellakis
(1996). Comparison of the Beck Depression Royal Free Eating Disorders Service,
Inventories -IA and –II in psychiatric Royal Free Hospital,
outpatients. Journal of Personality Pond Street,
Assessment, 67, 588–597. London NW3 2XA.
Garner, D.M., Olmstead, M.A. & Polivy, J.
(1983). Development and validation of a
multidimensional eating disorder
inventory for anorexia nervosa and
bulimia. International Journal of Eating
Disorders, 2, 15–34.
Henderson, M. & Freeman, C.P. (1987).
A self-rating scale for bulimia: The BITE.
British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 18–24.
International Test Commission (2000).
International guidelines for test use.
Leicester: British Psychological Society.
Sifter, J.L., Barlow, D.H., Marshall, D.E. &
Tangney, J.P. (1995). The relation of shame
and guilt to eating disorder
symptomology. Journal of Social and Clinical
Psychology, 14, 315–324.
Sequeira, H. & Van Scoyoc, S. (2004).
Discussion paper: Psychological testing.
Counselling Psychology Review, 19(2), 37–40.

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004 23

 DIVISION OF
COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋

Trainee Counselling Psychologist

Annual Prize
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
First prize £250 and two runner-up prizes of £100 and publication
of the article in Counselling Psychology Review.
This award is designed to encourage excellence in studying
Counselling Psychology.
If you are currently training to be a Counselling Psychologist, or have
completed training in the last 12 months (through either a taught
course or the independent route), you are invited to apply
for this award.
Your entry should be an article or paper written as part of your
assessed work (essay, report, etc.) during your training.
Your application should include a brief (100 word) statement from your
tutor/supervisor/co-ordinator of training which supports your entry
and confirms your registration for training.
Four copies of the assessed work should be submitted.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
Closing date for application: 28 February 2005.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
Prizes and certificates to be awarded at the
BPS Annual Conference in March 2005.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
Entries should be sent to:
Melody Cranbourne
Secretary SCPR (DCoP)
The British Psychology Society (Welsh Branch)
University of Wales Institute Cardiff
Llandaff, Cardiff CF5 2YB.

24 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

Counselling psychology
and psychometrics:
A South African
perspective
Jace Pillay, Rand Afrikaans University.
With all the changes taking place in South Africa it is not known whether the current training of counselling
psychologists is designed to equip them with the necessary skills to be effective in their psychological inter-
ventions. Nor has the role of psychometrics in their training been adequately explored. A qualitative research
design was used in this study to explore how these gaps can be bridged by describing the current training of
counselling psychologists and the role of psychometrics in their training. Data was collected from 13 univer-
sities in South Africa, through telephonic interviews, e-mails and the extraction of information from the
websites of these institutions. The findings indicate that most universities have restructured their training
to meet the needs of the South African context, but there is still a need for more changes to effectively equip
counselling psychologists with the necessary skills to assist their clients. Psychometrics is an essential
component of the training and should be viewed as complementary to counselling rather than contradictory.
The study concludes with recommendations for enhancing the role of psychometrics in counselling
psychology.

decade of democracy there have counselling psychologists at universities in

I
N THE PAST
been extensive changes in the theory,
method and practice of psychology within
the South African context (Pillay, 2003). Change
was inevitable since psychology needed to
address the deep psychological repercussions
instituted on the majority of people as a result
of racial oppression and discrimination
enforced by the previous apartheid regime. It
has become evident that the traditional indi-
vidual approach to psychotherapy is not
adequate to deal with the psychological prob-
lems in the South African context (Pillay, 2003;
Pretorius-Heuchert & Ahmed, 2001). This
implies that the practice of psychology should
move beyond individual sessions in a
consulting room to a broader focus on commu-
nity and society as a whole (Pillay, 2003, p.261).
However, the question arises: ‘Are psycholo-
gists adequately trained to be effective in the
provision of psychological services to the
majority of South Africans?’
This article attempts to answer the above
question by exploring the current training of
South Africa, and aims to explore the relevance
of psychometrics in the training of counselling
psychologists. In order to achieve these aims
the following research questions were formu-
lated:
i. Of what does the current training of
counselling psychologists consist?
ii. To what extent does it cover psychometric
testing?
iii. Is there a contradiction between counselling
psychology and psychometrics?
Method
Design
A qualitative research design that is contextual,
explorative and descriptive in nature was used
in the study. I believed that such a design would
help me to determine the actual content of the
training programme of counselling psycholo-
gists, as well as the actual experiences of
psychometric testing as part of the course work.
Obtaining data directly from the participants
themselves allowed me to describe their experi-

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004 25

ences as lived by themselves and prevented me
from working with preconceived ideas about
such experiences (Coe, 1991; Denzin, 1978;
Guba, 1981; Hammersley & Atkinson, 1983;
Marshall & Rossman, 1989; Zaharlick, 1992).
This study is qualitative in that it seeks to obtain
insight into the training of counselling psychol-
ogists and the use of psychometric testing. It is
contextual since it focuses on a specific social
and educational context (Mouton & Marais,
1991), that is the training of counselling
psychologists at universities in South Africa.
Exploration is used to gain insight into the
actual training to which counselling psycholo-
gists are currently exposed. The researcher
attempted to provide an accurate description of
the experiences of the participants by using
actual data given by them.
Data collection
Data was collected through telephonic inter-
views and e-mail submissions from
participants based at 13 different universities in
South Africa. Also, data on the course work
pertaining to the training of counselling
psychologists was downloaded from the
websites of the respective universities involved
in the study. Participants were purposively
selected according to the following criteria:
they should be co-ordinating or involved in the
training of counselling psychologists; they
should be based at a university in South Africa
and they should have knowledge and experi-
ence in psychometric testing.
Data analysis
The levels of data analysis as outlined by
Merriam (1998) were used. I read the data
collected and jotted down notes, comments,
observations, and queries relevant to the study
in the margins. The data was then analysed to
construct themes that indicated some recur-
rence in its pattern. The themes were
systematically devised with the research ques-
tions in mind, through the constant
comparative method of data analysis. This
involved the continuous comparison of partici-
pants’ responses with each other. Units of data,
that is bits of information, that had something
in common were grouped together according to
patterns and regularities that were identified.
26
Reliability and validity of data
Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) model was used to
ensure the trustworthiness of the study. They
identify four strategies for ensuring trustwor-
thiness, namely, credibility, transferability,
dependability and confirmability. Credibility
establishes how confident the researcher is
with the truth of the findings. Data was
collected through different methods, namely
telephonic interviews, e-mails and websites
from different sources, that is 13 different
participants involved in the training and/or
co-ordination of counselling psychologists.
This diversity of methods of data collection
and sources of data was used to ensure credi-
bility (Sherman & Webb, 1988; Smith, 1987).
Transferability was ensured through a purpo-
sively selected sample to allow other
researchers to make comparisons (Krefting,
1990). Dependability, that is the consistency of
the findings (Krefting, 1990), was achieved
through peer examination of the data.
Confirmability was obtained through the use
of saturation during the data analysis. Themes
were identified by their repetitive nature so
that the researcher’s biases could not interfere
with the findings.
Ethical considerations
Strict ethical measures were adhered to during
the research. These included obtaining the
informed consent of the participants and
ensuring confidentiality and anonymity
(Denosa, 1998). Great care was taken to ensure
that no participants were identifiable in the
reporting of the results. Even the names of the
universities in which the study was conducted
were withheld to ensure anonymity.
Results
The data was analysed according to the three
research questions asked and the results are
presented as such.
Current training of counselling
psychologists
An analysis of the data collected indicates that
most of the universities in South Africa appear
to have some commonality in the modules or
course work offered as part of the training of
counselling psychologists, namely counselling
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
interventions, psychological assessment,
psychopathology and community interven-
tions. Even though there is a difference in the
terminology used in naming modules, the
content appears to be similar in most instances.
I consider this finding to be very important
since it shows that the universities are contex-
tualising the training to make it more relevant
to the South African context. The past training
was not effective in equipping counselling
psychologists with the necessary skills to assist
the majority of people in the country. Most
participants indicated that skills in cross-
cultural counselling, collective practice,
preventative work and action research should
be infused in the training of psychologists.
In addition to the above modules, students
are expected to complete a stipulated time (720
hours currently) of practical work as part of the
training. Also, they have to complete a mini-
dissertation and a 12-months internship at an
accredited institution (Professional Practice
Framework, 2003, p.4). The Professional Board
for Psychology regulates these requirements,
together with core competencies and ethical
codes of conduct for psychologists (Ethical
Code of Professional Conduct, 2002).
The extent of psychometric
testing
Prior to 1994, test development and use were
viewed very negatively in South Africa (Policy
on the Classification of Psychometric Measuring
Devices, Instruments, Methods and Techniques,
2002). Most tests were standardised according to
white middle class norms and lacked cultural
appropriateness for the majority of South
Africans. However, these tests were still used for
the psychological diagnosis, classification and
institutionalisation of many black people. Hence,
the Professional Board for Psychology has
encouraged test developers to design new tests
that are culturally fair for the diverse cultures in
the country, since the Board identifies psycho-
logical assessment as one of the core
competencies for psychologists. In addition, the
Board requires psychologists to have ‘specialised
screening requiring in-depth interpretation of
psychological dynamics and dysfunction
including the use of approved assessment instru-
ments’ (Professional Practice Framework, 2003,
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
p.8). Psychologists are also expected to make ‘in-
depth diagnosis of dynamics within an
individual, couple, group, community, social
system or organisation, according to an accepted
diagnostic methodology’ (Professional Practice
Framework, 2003, p.8).
In light of the above, all South African
universities are obligated to include psycho-
metric assessments as part of the training of
counselling psychologists. Most universities
have made psychological assessments as a
module on its own as part of the course work.
However, there are few institutions that have
integrated psychometric testing as a holistic
part of the curriculum. This means that each
module would include some form of psycho-
metric testing. Whatever the case,
psychometrics is viewed as an essential
component in the training of counselling
psychologists.
The Professional Board for Psychology
allows for the registration of psychometrists in
two categories, namely supervised practice
and independent practice. In the supervised
category the individual would have to
complete a six-months practicum (minimum of
720 hours) in psychological testing and assess-
ment under the guidance and supervision of a
registered psychologist. In addition to this,
s/he has to obtain at least 70 per cent in the
National Board examination. Successful candi-
dates are permitted to use certain
psychological tests under the supervision and
mentoring of a registered psychologist. To
register for independent practice, candidates
must be registered with the Professional Board
for Psychology as a psychometrist for at least
three years. They can practice independently or
work in an organisation.
In keeping with the International
Guidelines for Test-use (Training and
Examination Guideline for Psychometrists in
the Categories Supervised Practice and
Independent Practice, 2003, pp.3–9) psychome-
trists need to demonstrate the following core
and derived competencies: have adequate
knowledge and understanding of psychomet-
rics, testing and assessment, which informs
and underpins the process of testing; use tests
in a professional and ethical manner by
following good testing practices; have appro-
27
priate contextual knowledge and skills; have
instrumental knowledge and skills; have
appropriate communication and interpersonal
skills; have contingency management skills,
and have basic practice management and
referral skills.
I have highlighted the requirements for
registering as a psychometrist, as well as the
competencies that s/he needs to have, in order
to emphasise the importance placed on psycho-
logical assessment within the South African
context. Most counselling psychologists seem
to have a positive attitude towards the registra-
tion of psychometrists. However, some have
reservations about the independent registra-
tion, especially when it relates to marketing
and monetary issues, since it does take away
potential clients and income from the regis-
tered psychologists. Nonetheless, I believe that
it is essential that we do have psychometrists
since they would help to relieve the backlog,
especially in the schools. Also, we should see
psychometrists as playing a supportive role to
counselling psychologists. Most psychologists
do not have adequate time to conduct psycho-
logical assessments that could help them with
their interventions with clients, and this could
be easily done by the psychometrist. This also
enables psychologists to focus on the tests that
psychometrists are not allowed to administer,
for example the TAT, CAT and MMPI-2.
I believe that psychometrics is essential in the
training of counselling psychologists, albeit there
should be a shift from working within a medical
model, where problems, needs and deficiencies
are accentuated (Eloff & Ebersohn, 2002; Lockett,
2000; Sharpe & Greany, 2000). The focus should
be on the client’s strengths, resources, capacities
and assets (Lubbe & Eloff, 2003).
Contradiction between
counselling psychology and
psychometrics
Most of the participants see no contradiction
between counselling psychology and psycho-
metrics. In fact, many of them see it as
complementary to each other: ‘The question
should not read as to whether they are contra-
dictory, but rather to what extent they are able to
complement one another. To divorce their functions
and set them as dichotomous is problematic’. Some
28
participants indicated that high-level training
in psychological assessment ‘is crucial in the
training of South African psychologists since
professional assessment is the defining legal charac-
teristic differentiating psychologists from other
therapeutic professionals’. Others noted,
‘Counselling psychologists need psychometrics to
assist with assessment, therapy planning and inter-
vention as well as in the measurement of outcomes
of evidence-based treatment’. Psychometrics
could be used to ‘enhance the counselling process
by providing a client and therapist with information
about the client from a more scientific perspective’.
According to Foxcroft and Roodt (2001, p.3),
this guides psychologists in making ‘informed
and appropriate decisions about the func-
tioning of their clients’.
Several participants pointed out ‘the results
of psychometric tools, especially in the South African
context, cannot be shared with a client without good
counselling skills. These counselling skills help
professionals to provide feedback that integrates
collateral information with the psychometric results
to contextualise the results properly for a client’.
The only disadvantage of psychometrics in
counselling psychology that was noted by
participants was the tendency of some practi-
tioners to use tests that are not culturally fair for
most South Africans. I concur with all of the
above but I must point out that it is essential
that psychometrics should be seen as a tool for
collecting data on clients that adds to the infor-
mation pool. This would prevent the danger of
merely identifying and classifying individuals
with some form of psychological disorder, as
used to be the practice in South Africa.
Conclusion
Most South African universities have restruc-
tured the training of counselling psychologists
to suit the needs of the South African context.
Although psychometrics is an important
component of the training, it should be viewed
from an ecosystemic perspective that enables
counselling psychologists to assess their clients
in multiple settings. There should be a shift
from using only norm referenced testing to
criterion-based assessments that are dynamic
and developmental in nature. This, I believe,
would assist in focusing on the strengths and
assets of clients, which in itself is therapeutic.
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
Furthermore, if tests were culturally appro-
priate, a more positive attitude towards
psychological assessments would develop.
Tests should also be seen as instruments in
collecting information on clients that would
help in determining psychotherapeutic inter-
ventions that would help them reach their
goals in life. This forces a shift from diagnosis
and classification of psychological problems to
recognising the potential within clients to
manage their own change in life.
Although the findings in this study indicate
that psychometrics should be seen as comple-
mentary to counselling psychology rather than
contradictory, there is nevertheless a need for
further research. The research questions should
be extended to lecturers, trainee psychologists
and registered counselling psychologists.
Further exploration with counselling psycholo-
gists working in different contexts, such as
non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
government departments, private companies,
communities and those in private practice,
would also add value to the findings. In this
way one would be able to determine the role
that psychometrics play in different contexts.
There is a need for further research in deter-
mining the actual use of psychological
assessment in psychotherapeutic interventions
with clients. This study concludes that coun-
selling psychologists need more skills,
especially in cross-cultural counselling, collec-
tive practice, preventative work and action
research to be more effective in their work.
Also, it points out that psychometrics is essen-
tial in the training of counselling psychologists
since it provides one with more information on
clients that may be useful for their positive
growth in psychotherapy.
References
Coe, D.E. (1991). Levels of ethnographic
inquiry. Qualitative Studies in Education,
4(4), 313–331.
Denosa (1998). Nursing News, 22(7).
Denzin, N.K. (1978). Sociological methods.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Eloff, I. & Ebersohn, L. (2002). The
implications of the asset-based approach
for early intervention. Perspectives in
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Jace Pillay
Department of Educational Sciences,
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Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004 31

The use of psychological
tests and measurements
by psychologists in the
role of a counsellor in
Greece
Sofia Triliva, University of Crete &
Anastassios Stalikas, Panteion University of
Social and Political Sciences.
The purpose of this article is to present the results of the survey we have conducted on the use of psycho-
logical tests, assessments and measurements in Greek psychologists in the role of a counsellor. The questions
we have addressed are: (1) Which tests and measurements are used? (2) How useful do professionals consider
these tests? And, (3) what are the reasons for using these instruments? The findings of the survey are
discussed within the context of the cultural conditions – both ‘internal and external’ – to psychology as a
discipline that impact upon the use of psychological measurements.

Greek psychologists’ use of tests political and financial support for education at all
and measurements in their levels as well as for test development and use;
counselling practice prevailing social problems that may be addressed by
T IS WELL documented by research that test use; and one’s national language.’ (p.158)

I certain characteristics of the culture and the

policies of the institutions in which psycho-
logical services are offered (counselling,
therapy, rehabilitation, etc.) influence and
impact upon the philosophical underpinnings,
practices, and orientations of the measurement,
evaluation, and testing enterprise (Archer,
Maruish, Imhof & Piortrowski, 1991; Cashel,
2002; Camara, Nathan & Puente, 2000;
Goldman, 1971; Hambleton & Okland, 2004;
Oakland, 2004).
Oakland (2004) aptly identifies two sepa-
rate set of conditions that affect the application
of testing; conditions external to psychology
and conditions internal to psychology. He
defines external conditions as: ‘Conditions
external to psychology include the nature of a
country’s social, political, religious, industrial,
economic conditions; attitudes and values toward
science, technology, and individual differences;
We refer to these conditions external to
psychology as the ‘cultural and sociopolitical
context’.
Oakland (2004) describes the conditions
internal to psychology which affect test use as
including professional standards and guide-
lines that address issues relevant to test
development and use, the availability of tests,
measures, and information concerning their
use, professional development and preparation
for the use of tests, and attitudes held by
professionals and professional associations
regarding testing. We will name this influence
the ‘professional context’.
The cultural and sociopolitical
context of Greece
Oakland (2004) delineates the various social
and economic changes during the Industrial
Revolution and how they impacted upon

32 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

testing practices. The massive migrations of
people from rural to urban centres and the
rising needs of a highly educated population
allowed for the emergence of assessment
methods to meet these needs. The group
testing practices that were put into effect even-
tually highlighted the needs of special
populations. Greece, however, did not change
into a major industrial nation (its economy is
still structured on a small-business and family-
farming foundation) and the family is still
today a self-contained social and economic
system that relies on its members for meeting
many essential needs. Schooling and educa-
tion has a high ‘value’ that permeates the
Greek culture, yet differences in academic apti-
tudes and achievement and assessing for such
differences amongst individuals has not come
about. The focus has been primarily on the
effects of different schooling programs or
curricula and on their modifications and revi-
sions. As a result, the focus has not been on
individual differences and special program-
ming has been slow to come (for example,
Child Study Teams for the evaluation of
children with learning problems were first
introduced two years ago and the University
Entrance Examination System dos not repre-
sent a standardised system of assessment of
academic aptitude).
Oakland (2004) also points to the influence
that political, social, and, economic supports
have for the development and the usage of
tests and measurements. Private companies
have a limited interest in developing Greek
versions of tests, given their limited financial
market. In addition, funding for developing
tests and measurement devices or the founding
of testing corporations has never been avail-
able by the Ministry of Education adding to the
difficulties in developing and using tests. There
has not been a comprehensive and systematic
system for research funding or for developing
a research or a ‘test development’ ethos.
Moreover, this cultural and sociopolitical
context impacts on the manner with which
psychologists use tests (Goldman, 1971).
Usually testing is based upon one of two
criteria; either, ‘How will testing help my client
to choose?’, or ‘How will testing help the
agency or the institution to change?
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
These two criteria are based upon different
philosophical positions that lead to differences
in the usage and application of tests. The first
criterion focuses on differences between indi-
viduals and the measurement and evaluation of
these differences are for the purpose of finding
the best possible place for each person among
other individuals in school, at work, or within
the social system at large. The emphasis is on
formulating an understanding of the indi-
vidual’s cognitive, personality, and interest
profiles and on estimating how their profile will
help them fit and feel successful in placement
and settings available. The person’s constella-
tion of potential, abilities, interests, and skills
are viewed as causes rather than results; the
person’s profile is whom he or she is.
The second criterion focuses on the effects
of the system or the environment on people.
The implication for practice is that testing is
used to examine systemic change so that the
group as a whole will develop and change effi-
ciently and effectively. The testing outcomes
are viewed as results of particular systemic,
ecological or environmental conditions. This
approach is not interested in differences
between people but it seeks ‘treatments’ which
are effective in increasing the highest average
performance level. For example, which kind of
programming will aid the individual in
learning? The experiences of different kinds of
students (people) are not salient in this
approach and the emphasis is on removing or
preventing the ill-effects of environmental
deprivation (Goldman, 1971). When the later
societal and systemic conditions prevail,
Oakland (2004) has found that there are fewer
tests developed and used.
These fundamental philosophical differ-
ences lead to other socio-cultural differences
which impact upon testing and measurement
and evaluation practices. According to
Oakland (2004) in societies and cultures where
resources are used or divided on the basis of
meritocracy instead of egalitarianism there is
less use and development of tests. In Greece
egalitarian customs are more apparent in
hiring, selection, and evaluation. For example,
up until very recently, educators seeking
employment were placed on an ‘employment
waiting list’ and assessment and evaluation
33
criteria were not used for hiring. These prac-
tices are indicative of a prevalent belief that
tests can be used unjustly or oppressively.
The professional context for test
use in Greece
Psychology is a newly-established profession
in Greece. The first Department of Psychology
at the University level was founded in 1987
and the first licenses for professional practice
were issued in the mid 90s. License is issued to
all holders of a Bachelor degree, a four-year
undergraduate degree in psychology. There is
no specialisation into fields such as
Counselling, Clinical, Developmental, etc.
Students take over 45 courses in various subject
areas of psychology and complete a short
three- to four-week applied practicum. In the
last seven years there has been a surge of
several graduate programmes in Psychology,
specialising in School, Clinical, Health,
Counselling and Guidance, Organisational,
and Cognitive Psychology, a result of a special
funding project by the European Union for the
development of Graduate Studies.
Even though Psychology is a relatively
young discipline in Greece and the overall
population of psychologists is relatively small,
there are two major psychological associations
that represent psychologists: the Hellenic
Psychological Association (membership in this
society requires a doctoral degree in psychology
and it is a society for academics- something
similar to the British Psychological Association),
and the Association of Greek Psychologists
(AGP, the first professional psychological associ-
ation in Greece). Apart from the AGP which
developed Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct
(1997) there have been no developments of stan-
dards for developing, and using of tests and
measurements in professional. Moreover,
training in test development, administration,
and interpretation is not linked to licensing
criteria. Hence, the conditions internal to the
profession are not those that would bolster the
development of testing initiatives and ethos in
Greece. The profession is in an early stage in its
development, with minimum locally supported
and enforced standards of professional practice
or standards for educational and psychological
testing, and with few locally developed tests.
34
In Greece, there has been no survey
conducted to identify what types of tests are
being used in what settings and for what
purposes. It is only lately (Stalikas, Triliva &
Roussi, 2002) that a compilation of psycho-
logical tests, available in the Greek language
was completed.
The present study was designed to examine
the test usage in Greece. We are primarily
concerned with the ways in which professional
psychologists use tests in their counselling
practice.
Method
Sample
Our sample was comprised by two different
subgroups. The first (N=150) represented
psychologists working in private practice. Our
sample included practitioners from five major
geographical areas of Greece and their major
cities. Namely, Attica – Athens, Macedonia –
Thessaloniki, Peloponissos – Patra, Crete –
Hania and Rethymon, and Epirus – Ioannina.
The second subgroup represented 86 public
institutions where the majority of public
psychological services in Greece are offered.
The number of psychologists working in each
of these institutions varies from a minimum of
one to a maximum of 12, with an average of
four psychologists in each institution.
Instruments
We used one questionnaire containing the
following three questions:
1. Which psychometric instruments, tests, and
questionnaires do you use in your practice
(or institution)?
2. For what purposes do you use each test?
3. How useful do you find these tests or
measures?
The first question was an open–ended.
Question three was answered on a five-point
Likert scale (1=not useful at all, 5=essential).
The second question had a multiple choice
format where the participants could choose as
many as applicable of the following six cate-
gories: (1) diagnosis; (2) therapy planning; (3)
research and statistics; (4) follow-up; (5)
disability appraisal for disability compensa-
tion; and (6) psychological evaluation to obtain
support services. Question three was answered
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
on a five-point Likert scale (1= not useful at all,
5=essential).
Procedure
Using the telephone book, professional associa-
tion membership lists that were made available
to us, and professional contacts we conducted a
telephone and e-mail survey of psychologists
working in private practice. A research asso-
ciate called or sent them an e-mail and
requested their participation to the survey.
In order to obtain the list of the major
public providers of psychological services in
Greece, we used the handbook, A Guide to
Psychological Services in Greece (Madianos &
Stephanis, 1997), published under the auspices
of the Hellenic Ministry of Health. We
contacted by telephone 85 such institutions
which represent more that 75 per cent of the
overall public psychological services offered.
Once more, a research associate called them –
or sent them an e-mail – and requested their
participation to the survey. The average time of
the phone interviews was 10 minutes.
Results
Within the first sub-group of psychologists in
private practice (N=150) only seven (less than
one per cent) reported that they use psycho-
logical tests. All of the psychologists reported
using tests occasionally in their practice, and
that they used projective measures (projective
drawings, Thematic Apperception Test, and
Children’s Apperception Test) for the purpose
of informing the counselling process during
Table 1: Types of institutions comprising the sample.
Type of institution
Community Mental Health Centre
Community Rehabilitation Psychiatric Day Clinic
Drug Abuse Rehabilitation Centre
Mental Health Services: Prefecture-organised
Child and Adolescent Services (including Ministry of Education –
Child Study Teams and Special Schools)
General and Psychiatric Hospital
Total
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
the diagnostic phase and as an aid to therapy.
The later application was of mostly of projec-
tive measures and they were used very
creatively. One of the projective measures used
has been developed locally it is Chatira’s
Projective Technique (Chatira, 1996). It consists
of a set of 10 cards that display scenes from
hospital, family, and school settings from the
broader environment of children who are
facing major medical illness. The seriously ill
child is asked during the counselling process to
narrate a story for each one of the cards. The
narrative is explored and used to develop an
understanding of the child’s knowledge
regarding the seriousness of their illness; their
worries, fears, and insecurities regarding the
outcomes of their illness; and how they view
their body and life in general. The child or the
counsellor may use these stories as therapy
progresses with a focus of re-scripting the orig-
inal narrative or developing new and more
in-depth constructions. This particular instru-
ment was used in counselling not only in
private practice but also in two of the major
hospitals that were contacted.
Within the second subgroup 66 of the 85
institutions contacted responded to the survey.
Table 1 shows the types of institutions making
up the Greek sample.
Here we should note that while the replies
have been codified as ‘Institution’ and the total
appears to be 66, it represents more than 250
psychologists working in these institutions.
The respondents’ answers to our first survey
question are presented in Figure 1.
Frequency
18
7
6
7
11
17
66
35
 Figure 1: Psychometric instruments most frequently used (five per cent or more)
by 66 Greek institutions.

As Figure 1 indicates the most common
tests used in Greece are the Wechsler
Intelligence Scales, the MMPI and several
projective personality tests. It is also worth
noting the complete absence of usage of
achievement tests, and the presence of two
inventories for the assessment of depression
(BDI and Hamilton).
In terms of the purposes of testing the
results indicated that diagnosis is the most
usual reason for psychological testing across
different settings, followed by follow-up
purposes. The diagnostic questions they
address originate from psychiatrists, educators,
parents, or other community providers of
mental health services. Diagnostic questions in
child and adolescent service provision are
comprised of questions of learning difficulties,
physical impairment, mental difficulties, and
behavioural and adjustment problems. It is
important to note that most of the testing
requests are related to applications for health
insurance compensation (e.g. due to learning
disability, mental handicaps, etc.) or for
obtaining special services. The evaluation and
diagnosis of the client function as a certification
for special compensation. It is only psycho-
logists working as providers of mental health
services within the ‘public sector’ (agencies
that are government sanctioned or approved
for providing such evaluative information)
who can conduct such evaluations. In the adult

36 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

services sector the referral questions mostly
address diagnosis of psychiatric syndromes
and the evaluation of psychosocial and psychi-
atric problems.
Additionally, the results indicate that the
setting in which testing is conducted influences
the purposes for which it is conducted. For
example, in community mental health services
centres testing is used mostly for diagnosis (82
per cent) and appraisal of disability compensa-
tion (41 per cent), while in drug abuse
rehabilitation centres it is used predominantly
for diagnosis (100 per cent), therapy planning
(100 per cent) and follow-up (67 per cent). In
the Community Mental Health Centres one of
the counselling services offered is family or
systemic interventions. In these settings the
family counsellors often used testing in the
therapeutic process. That is the counsellor used
the outcomes to stimulate family discussion, to
underline how well the members of the family
know each other, and to aid the family in devel-
oping new modes of understanding or
interpreting information. A case example is
that of an adolescent girl who had attempted
suicide and whose family sought help at the
mental health centre. One of the major
complaints of the parents was their daughters
‘lack of achievement motivation and school
failure.’ Testing was initially used to diagnose
possible learning problems and then to aid in
the therapy process. The parents and the
adolescent were asked to guess what the
learning profile of their child was, her strengths
and weaknesses, and to explain their under-
standings to each other in light of the
difficulties they were encountering.
Table 2 shows the percentage of respon-
dents indicating each purpose according to
type of institution.
In terms of usefulness of the tests applied,
(see Table 3) the respondents indicated a range
of usefulness within the useful and very useful
range. It is also worth noting that Child and
Adolescent Medical Centres and Community
Rehabilitation Psychiatric programmes eval-
uate the usage of tests as more essential (3.7
and 4.2 respectively) compared to Prefecture
Mental Health Services and General
Psychiatric Hospitals (2.4 and 2.9 respectively).
This may be due to the fact that they use the
measures to complete assessments and evalua-
tions that certify learning problems, disability,
or handicaps for individuals who are
requesting services or compensation from the
Ministries of Education or Health and Welfare).

Table 2: Per cent distribution of reasons for using psychometric instruments according to
type of institution*.
Type of institution (N) Reason for using psychometric instruments
Diagnosis Therapy Research Follow-up Disability Psychological
planning and statistics compensation evaluation
for services

Community mental
82% 5% 6% 29% 41% 24%
health centres (18)
Comm. rehabilitation
86% 0% 14% 43% 0% 0%
psychiatric day clinics (7)
Drug abuse
100% 100% 50% 67% 0% 33%
rehabilitation centre (6)
Mental health services
83% 0% 0% 50% 17% 33%
(prefecture) (7)
Child/adolescent
100% 40% 0% 40% 10% 10%
medical centres (11)
General/psychiatric
88% 12% 0% 29% 29% 29%
hospitals (17)

*Most respondents provided more than one reason, thus row totals do not sum to 100%.

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004 37

 Table 3: Average rating of usefulness by 66 institutions according to type of institution.
Type of institution (N)
Community Mental Health Centre (18)
Community Rehabilitation Psychiatric Day Clinic (7)
Drug Abuse Rehabilitation Centre (6)
Mental Health Services: Prefecture-organised (7)
Child and Adolescent Services (including Ministry of Education –
Child Study Teams and Special Schools) (11)
General and Psychiatric Hospital (17)
In the Community Mental Health Centres,
Child and Adolescent Medical Centres, and the
Day Clinics where testing results are used in
the counselling process the ratings of useful-
ness are higher.
Discussion
The results obtained seem to be somewhat
different from those in other surveys in other
countries. The international surveys of test
usage indicate that measures of intelligence
personality and achievement comprise the 39
per cent, 24 per cent, and 10 per cent respec-
tively (Oakland & Hu, 1993; Oakland, 2004).
Our data indicate – on the average – higher
proportions of intelligence and personality
testing that is comprised of 48 per cent and 39
per cent of test usage. The one major difference
being achievement tests which are not used at
all in Greece. This is on the one hand expected
since no achievement tests have been standard-
ised in the Greek language, yet it is also
somewhat surprising given the educational
needs and the rapid changes in the Greek
educational system. It is possible that the more
idiographic testing procedures are more valued
as compared to the nomothetic ones and this
can be understood considering the socio-
cultural conditions which affect testing
practices in Greece. Another interesting obser-
vation is that even though the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale has not been standardised in
a Greek population it is broadly used with
unofficial and anecdotal translations and item
substitutions. While the standardisation
process has started for the WAIS-III, the trans-
lation and standardisation of the WISC-III has
38
Average rating of
usefulness
3.5
4.2
3.2
2.4
3.7
2.9
been completed. Similarly, while the MMPI is
used widely, and it has been standardised for
the Greek population, the standardisation of
the MMPI- II has only recently begun. The only
test, which is widely used, and has been devel-
oped for the Greek population is the Athina
Test, a test that assesses learning processes and
difficulties.
In terms of purposes for test use, the data
suggest that tests are used in an unsystematic
manner and mostly for diagnoses purposes.
These findings do follow the general interna-
tional trends but in comparison to the results of
other surveys, we can identify less usage, less
systematic usage and lower degrees of satisfac-
tion with the application of testing practices.
The finding that less than one per cent of
private practitioners use tests is indicative of
the overall state of testing in Greece. It seems
that testing has not become part of the identity
of professional psychology or, more specifi-
cally, of psychologists in the counsellor role. In
addition, the data indicate that testing is
limited to applications for social benefits or
specialised services and it does not represent a
method that Greek professional psychologists
use readily in their practice. The finding that
testing is almost exclusively used for very
particular purposes – official demands for
compensation and specialised services – it is
indicative of the role that testing has acquired
in Greece.
In summary, the results our survey indi-
cated that there is some development of tests in
Greece, yet that there is no systematic develop-
ment of tests. Some tests are used without
proper standardisation, some are old (e.g.
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
MMPI) and some are in the development
process. The results also indicate that testing is
related to particular requests, usually
involving some of certification of a disability or
the acquisition of special status or services.
This picture seems to be parsimoniously
explained by the Oakland (2004) model. It
seems that as the conditions within and outside
psychology change, the attitude, usage and
symbolisation of the testing process evolves.
Further research examining the way that coun-
selling psychologists view the testing
enterprise will add to our understanding of the
manner that testing is applied in Greece and
may provide suggestions for change.
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Hambleton, R.K. & Oakland, T. (2004).
Advances, issues, and research in testing
practices around the world. Applied
Psychology: An International Review, 53(2),
155–156.
Hu, S. & Oakland, T. (1991). Global and
regional perspectives on testing children
and youth: An international survey.
International Journal of Psychology, 26(3),
329–344.
Madianos, M.G. & Stephanis, K.N. (1997).
A guide to psychological services in Greece.
Athens: Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Oakland, T. (2004). Use of psychological and
educational tests internationally. Applied
Psychology: An International Review, 53(2),
157–172.
Oakland, T. & Hu, S. (1993). International
perspectives on tests used with children
and youth. Journal of School Psychology, 31,
501–517.
Stalikas, A., Triliva, S. & Roussi, P. (2002).
Psychometric instruments in Greece. Athens:
Ellinika Grammata.
Correspondence
Sofia Triliva
Department of Psychology,
University of Crete,
University Campus,
74 100 Rethymnon,
Crete,
Greece.
39
 in association with Centre for Stress Management

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40 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

Hard science in a soft
world (a personal view)
Bruce Grimley, Coaching Psychology Forum.
Psychometrics: Creating the box
psychology is as an
M
Y BACKGROUND IN
independent psychologist who set
up a company nine years ago. It was
important for me to obtain Chartership for the
simple reason I saw the whole industry of
counselling, coaching and psychotherapy as a
bit of a minefield and I wished to obtain a sense
of having a high quality professional identity.
I find after working for these nine years as a
psychologist (the last 18 months as a chartered
occupational psychologist), that there is still
quite a bit of ambiguity concerning the differ-
ences. For me I choose to simply call it
one-to-one work. Whether my client comes
from a clinical population and has a DSM-IV-
TR appendage or not, the way in which I find
myself working is similar, I choose to simply
see in front of me a human who operates
according to the principles of psychology.
I could imagine the use of psychometrics in
coaching/counselling is determined as much
by the personality type of the administrator as
by anything else. With Level A (BPS accredited
training in basic principles of psychometrics
and ability testing) and Level B (BPS accredited
training in personality testing) left in the dust
many moons ago, I have found my idealistic
undergrad days of believing it is only a matter
of time before the science of psychology pins
down the fundamental variables creating the
human condition waning. After many years of
being in the grip of my inferior types namely
Sensing and Thinking, I find myself naturally
relaxing back into my more natural type of
Intuiting and Feeling. As you might guess the
box in which I am currently musing is that of
Myers Brigg Type Indicator. (MBTI). When in
this mode, I find psychometrics in coaching
offer themselves to me as a type of portal,
whereby I can assist my client to understand
and appreciate where they lie in the vast sea of
tested humanity. However, this portal always
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
remains the project of a PhD student, or one
with equal curiosity in a distant past. However
many papers are written demonstrating a host
of reliabilities and validities during the interim,
the fact remains a psychometric is only one way
in which we carve up the sensory world with
abstract words creating in many cases a self
fulfilling prophesy, and circular reasoning. One
of the most useful properties of a psychometric
is to assist a client to think accurately within a
box to allow them at a later time to exist outside
of the box, having a greater control over how
they think, feel and behave in a variety of
contexts. This is the main link as I see it between
coaching/counselling and psychometrics.
Careful selection of the appropriate psychome-
tric creates a way of carving up the world with
words in a way which is meaningful for the
client. This provides an opportunity for the
client to experience the fact that their reality is
only one of many permutations, represented by
their profile. This realisation allows them to
then make choices as to whether that reality is
one that will assist them in moving towards
their goal when one works in a solution focused
context. Because the psychometric is also
feeding back to the client their own reality, use
of a psychometric quite early on in an interven-
tion is an excellent way of establishing rapport
and a strong therapeutic alliance. This would be
especially relevant given that Wampold (as
cited in Jay Lynn & Hallquist, 2004) believed
such an alliance ‘accounts for the largest
proportion of systematic variance in
psychotherapy outcome.’
Discussion documents
With my coaching hat on I refer to psycho-
metrics as ‘discussion documents’. They
provide me with an entry point into the client’s
world. Even though the words they have
responded to are not their words, the internal
variations provide a unique imprint of who
41
this person is, and an opportunity for this
person to explain that variation in their own
words. The psychometric, therefore, is not the
end point, but the beginning point, the point at
which a rapport is established and a powerful
dynamic created. I have found in coaching how
this dynamic is managed as the crucial factor
determining a successful outcome for the
client. I have also found in my personal devel-
opment and journey, just as when giving
presentations, PowerPoint slides or flip charts
can be a barrier to effective communication,
and something to hide behind if all is not well,
so too in individual work, psychometrics can
be a professional prop, and a bale out strategy
if the dynamic created between coach and
client is not effective. I believe as psychologists
even though we work in a scientific way,
because of our subject matter the necessity to
work as an artist as well is undeniable.
However, unlike artists, the creation of a well-
defined dependent variable against which to
evaluate the independent variable of a
coaching intervention is essential.
During discussion over this document
what the psychometric often does is bring the
client back to an undeniable reality; they
responded to certain important and relevant
questions in a particular way, for whatever
reason, and the way in which they have
answered differentiates them from others who
have taken the questionnaire. One popular
psychometric that measures personality is the
16PF5. This has 16 factors. One of the factors,
which is made up of 10 questions is that of
‘Vigilance’. One of the items in this factor to
give you a taste of it is ‘I suspect that people
who seem friendly to me could be disloyal
behind my back.’ To say this item is often true
for you is to incur a score of two compared
with if you answered ‘hardly ever’ in which
case you would score nothing. If, for instance,
I point out to a client that on the 16PF5 that
their sten score is 10 on the factor of Vigilance,
then it is pretty undeniable to a psychometri-
cian that their present preferred style of
relating to others is suspicious, sceptical, and
wary.
If one takes as a useful coaching paradigm
‘Outcome, Acuity, Flexibility’, (O’Connor &
Seymour, 1995) then it becomes clear how
42
psychometrics during discussion can assist the
client accept certain present ‘truths’, leading to
a greater acuity of where they are now in rela-
tion to their defined outcome of where they
wish to be in the future.
During discussion, psychometrics can also
assist in flexibility as well. People often
become stuck because they process informa-
tion and act upon it in an inflexible manner,
even when feedback demonstrates to them
such internal and external behaviour is not
effective in moving them towards their goal.
Psychometrics such as Kolb’s learning cycle
and Sylvia Downs learning block question-
naire, in the hands of a skilled coach can assist
in providing the client with a new way of expe-
riencing how to learn. Kolb’s learning cycle can
help the client understand whether or not they
naturally learn more through reflection or
active participation, through a theoretical
approach or an approach which requires more
concrete thinking involving experience.
Successful learning it is suggested involves
using a mix and match of all of these
approaches. Likewise Sylvia Downs’ learning
block questionnaire can help a client under-
stand whether or not they have blind spots in
their learning. The four dimensions elicit
whether there is a difficulty in learning from
others, anxieties about learning, difficulties
with concentration, or a deficit of basic
learning skills. However, the emphasis in a
good coaching intervention is not only to
provide acuity, and outcome, but also to create
flexibility, providing the client with a greater
range of options concerning their thought,
affect and behaviour within the context of their
defined outcome. Without generating this flex-
ibility within the client they are left being very
aware that they are very different from what
they want to be, or where they want to go, but
without the means to do anything about it.
What psychometrics cannot do is address the
subtle skill and art the coach needs to bring
their client to the realisation they can achieve
their outcome quite easily.
Silence of the Lambs
One of the ways in which I relax and unwind
out of work is by watching films. I remember
the time in the film Silence of the Lambs, when
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
agent Starling approached the menacing
Dr Lecture with a wad of psychometrics.
‘Do you expect to dissect me with that blunt
instrument?’ he sneered, but took them
anyway because as we know he had his own
agenda.
As I come to the point of my professional
life when it is appropriate to settle back into my
natural intuiting and feeling mode I find when
using psychometrics in coaching the issue of
transference is quite central. I remember using
Beck’s triad of depression, anxiety and help-
lessness questionnaires to act as a dependent
variable in evaluating my coaching interven-
tion for a client who had suffered temporal
lobe damage and had been referred to me by a
health care organisation. After answering one
set of questionnaires and handing them to me,
this client must have caught me scanning her
response set, ‘Are they OK?’ she inquisitively
asked. The experience helps highlight the fact
our clients will have a very different way of
relating to psychometrics and psychometri-
cians, ranging from a sneering know it all, to
the obedient client who actually thinks it is you
who knows it all. To administer the psycho-
metric in the standard deadpan fashion as
some say we should, to ensure standardisation
across clients and, therefore, reliability of
response set, is something I no longer do in a
coaching intervention. I recognise there is an
element of transference in the person who is
‘being tested’ and there is emotional baggage
which goes back quite possibly to pre-11+ days.
Without understanding the nature of their rela-
tionship to having psychometrics administered
to them it becomes increasingly unlikely the
coach will be able to use the instrument in the
way I believe it is most useful in a coaching
intervention, that is in a way so that it acts as a
portal into the client’s own world. Unless we
use our coaching skills to encourage our ‘naive’
client to relax and answer honestly, unless we
use those same skills to get our ‘know it all’ on
board, the opportunity to connect with the
client not just at a cognitive level but also at an
emotional level will be attenuated. Without this
connection the ensuing discussion will not
develop in the client the full capability of being
self aware and opportunity to develop the
required flexibility to move forward with their
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
life along the dimension of their choice. As a
side note, of course, the opportunity to develop
rapport with our ‘know it all’ is very much
increased if we know what we are talking
about. If they are statistically minded to talk of
tests of maximum and typical performance,
ipsative and non-ipsative measures, range
restriction or standard error of measurement is
actually quite useful. It is also one reason why
someone administering psychometrics should
be qualified to at least Level A if they are going
to use psychometrics in their professional life.
Just in case there are some readers who are
beginning to think I have just come out of the
Lord of the Rings film set, or maybe The Final
Fantasy, I will explicate what I mean by
‘connect’.
I simply mean to be able to create within
the coach’s mind a working model of the client
so the coach can predict accurately what the
client will say and how the client will feel in
answer to questions and other external stimuli.
To then at one level associate into that model
when relating to the client, whilst at a higher
cognitive level being able to act as a coach in
that dynamic.
Rapport and change
Piaget came to the conclusion after his three
mountains experiments that children under the
age of around eight could not de-centre. They
could not pick out the abstract representation
seen by another. However, when care was
taken to, in a Vygotsky way, keep within the
zone of proximal development, Martin Hughes
came up with quite different findings. By estab-
lishing a rapport with his participants by
ensuring they fully understood, children of
eight and under, literally became more intelli-
gent over night. They were shown to be able to
de-centre quite easily in Hughes replications of
Piaget’s experiments. (Donaldson, 1987). In the
same way we will find when working with a
client who is a sten 10 on the vigilance dimen-
sion of the 16PF5, when we take care to
develop rapport, a very different person can
emerge. One who is trusting, believing and
friendly, one who has that capacity in abun-
dance. Thus psychometrics in coaching help
the client understand not only where they
stand in the sea of tested humanity, but also
43
help the client recognise they are only there References
because there is a primary or a secondary gain Jay Lynn, S. & Hallquist, M.N. (2004). Toward
to be obtained for them in that place. It helps a scientifically-based understanding of
them recognise they in fact have a capacity to Milton H. Erickson’s strategies and tactics:
be different and to feel different, and to experi- Hypnosis, response sets and common
ence their phenomenal world in a very factors in psychotherapy. Contemporary
different way should they choose to do so. This Hypnosis, 21(2), 63–78.
I suggest applies to the range of psychometrics O’Connor, J. & Seymour, J. (1995). Introducing
from personality, through ability, aptitude, and neuro-linguistic programming (Rev. ed.).
interest, to mood and intelligence. The reason London: Thorsons.
we often remain similar throughout our life, is Donaldson, M. (1987). Children’s minds.
possibly because if we are honest we find we London: Fontana Press.
inhabit the same environment throughout our
life. We warm towards people who are similar Correspondence
to us, we engage in task with which we are Bruce Grimley
familiar, we readily develop habits which ulti- Achieving Lives,
mately define who we are. We can in fact 185 Ramsey Road
change, however we choose not to. If who you St. Ives,
are at present floats your boat, and life is an Cambridgeshire PE17 4TZ.
exhilaration … cool. If that is not your experi- Tel: 01480 359108
ence pick out a psychometric and change your E-mail: Achieving-Lives.co.uk
life forever.

Summary
Psychometrics are constructs within which we
explain behaviour. Rather than being used in a
prescriptive way, when they can become self-
fulfilling prophesies, and seal clients into single
loop learning, they can more effectively be
used in an exploratory way to assist the client
create their own language to explain their
response set when norm referenced.
Psychometrics are a useful tool, but can never
replace the skill and art of being a good
coach/counsellor. They can usefully be
regarded as an entry point into the client’s
phenomenal world, creating an effective coun-
selling alliance, where the coach can then work
with the client to move towards and eventually
obtain agreed outcomes.

44 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

 Book
R ev i e w s
Handbook of Solution-Focused Therapy
Bill O’Connell & Stephen Palmer (Eds.)
Sage Publications; 2004.
ISBN: 0-7619-6783-4 (Cloth); 0-7619-6784-2 (Pbk).
Cloth £60.00; Paperback £17.99.
The French Dominican theologian Antonin
Sertillanges wrote, ‘taking everything into
account only one solution becomes me – my
own.’ The message to practitioners in the
Handbook of Solution-Focused Therapy is just that;
aim to help clients recognise their own solu-
tions. It sounds obvious to those of us coming
from an Existential or Humanistic background;
however, the obvious is not necessarily easy to
put into practice.
I wore two hats whilst undertaking this
review, those of a practitioner and a tutor. The
following are a few observations.
The first thing to mention is the impressive
scope of the book, and how it reflects on SFT in
many varied contexts. Whilst chapters on
mental health, psychosis, etc., will be familiar
to many, just as informative are the glimpses
given into social work, parenting issues and
working in higher education. I was struck by
the clarity of each chapter, interestingly
brought to life by case examples which attempt
to demonstrate the application of SFT.
Unfortunately, case examples were not present
in the chapters on mental health or psychosis,
and they are conspicuous by their absence.
A good review of research is provided,
something students should always be encour-
aged to study. However, from the perspective
of a tutor and with students in mind, there are
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
some other less helpful aspects which need to
be mentioned.
For example, the issue of motivation could
have been clarified. The presumption that the
presence of a client in therapy is indicative of
their motivation is simplistic. In particular it
provides the narcissist or borderline person-
ality client with the perfect grounds to blame
their therapist for any failure, before moving
on to seek out that non-existent ‘magic bullet’.
There is a difference between motivation and a
will to change. The former can be encouraged
in therapy; the latter is ultimately a matter of
the client taking some responsibility.
I was also struck by an example of one
particular intervention. It demonstrated every-
thing I encourage students not to do. It was
overly long and complex. Surely effective inter-
ventions are concise and should aim to give
clients space to reflect.
Other fleeting references were made to
issues which were never fully developed.
Whilst I understand this lay outside the scope
of this particular publication, I also feel more
could have been done. For example, in the
chapter on mental health, the notion of client
choice was raised. This issue is very much in
the news as politicians are falling over them-
selves to convince us that NHS reforms will
give choice to all. The notion of client empow-
erment is a foreign concept for many who
experience an increasingly one-eyed system
which offers CBT to all-comers as a potential
cure-all. These debates I feel should, at the very
least, have been introduced.
45
 I also found myself surprised that a number
of contributors commented how SFT sessions
can feel more optimistic and enjoyable for the
practitioner. This seems a rather strange focus
(pardon the pun), which suggests the needs of
the practitioner are of equal importance. Good
practitioners develop ways to look after them-
selves even when the work is at its most
difficult and yes, depressing. Often the real
work is uncomfortable and can even feel
thankless, but to stick with it brings its
rewards. I feel that whilst an experienced prac-
titioner will appreciate the point being made
about the ‘tone’ of sessions, the student reader
risks being left confused.
To remove ourselves from the discomfort of
therapy, risks losing sight of the often mean-
ingful messages within a client’s anxiety,
depression, etc. To arrive at a solution is a
reasonable aim, but in itself does not constitute
real change. Thus, the notion that what we
need ‘is a method of helping people go on,
rather than a method of explanation’, as
suggested in Chapter 8, is as true as it is facile.
It is rather like being asked to describe the
night sky by painting the moon but leaving out
the stars. The viewer gets a general idea, but it
has no context. Kierkegaard wrote, ‘It is
perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life
must be understood backwards. But they
forget the other proposition, that it must be
lived forwards.’ I have always thought what a
neat description of good therapy this is. As
described in this book, SFT can undoubtedly
help people ‘live forwards’, but without under-
standing their lives backwards so to speak, the
context in which change takes place is lost.
Counselling Adolescents: The Pro-Active
Approach
Kathryn & David Geldard
Sage Publications; June 2004.
ISBN: 1-4129-0234-7 (Cloth); 1-4129-0235-5 (Pbk).
Cloth £65.00; Paperback £18.99.
‘This book is not intended to be primarily a
theoretical treatise, but a practical guide for
counsellors who wish to work with adoles-
cents.’ This statement appears in the
introductory paragraph to the book. This not
46
Any future crisis will be faced without the
depth of self-knowledge which can be reached
via a shared exploration. Whilst hinted at, this
concept needed much fuller consideration if
students in particular are to appreciate the deli-
cate decision making process which is central
to our work
That said, I was left feeling how the useful
practical tips which run through this book
could add to the therapists’ armoury, in as
much as they help clients ‘live forwards’. The
case examples are littered with excellent use of
reflecting, summarising and paraphrasing.
They encourage practitioners to avoid asking
for increasing amounts of concrete informa-
tion. Ways to use time between sessions,
something not emphasised enough in other
models, are also offered. There was even a
good concise example of addressing suicidal
ideation. All of these helped produce a cogent
argument for the use of SFT .
The book ends creatively whereby SFT
writes a letter 10 years hence reflecting on
itself. In this letter many aspects of bad therapy
which most of us would recognise are
addressed, whilst the strengths of SFT are
considered. This captures for me the essential
point of this book, namely, that it is calling for
good therapy. For those wanting to learn about
SFT, by all means read this book. For students
and practitioners who have little if any interest
in SFT, I would say read this book anyway.
Forget the title and reflect instead on the
general points made, for they capture much of
what good therapy is about.
Andrew J. Smith
withstanding, what was highlighted for me was
how little developmental insight is provided by
many models used in counselling psychology.
Ironically, therefore, it is the sense of there being
a shortfall in theory which will remain for me an
enduring impression of this book.
However, by providing a rational for the
use of proactive approaches to counselling
adolescents, this book succeeds in, not only,
offering practical ideas but also a philosophical
framework to support the integration of some
therapeutic theories. It is primarily an intro-
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
ductory text, with clear, well organised sections
and headings. Information has been well
researched, and is clearly referenced to support
further reading.
The book is separated into four sections.
Part 1 seeks to provide an understanding of the
adolescent; Part 2 comprehensively explains
the notion of proactive counselling; Part 3 illus-
trates specific strategies that can be used by the
therapist; finally, Part 4 provides concrete
examples of the proactive approach through
case studies.
In Part 1, adolescence is presented as a
combination of challenges: biological, cogni-
tive, psychological, social, moral and spiritual.
‘Adolescents [we are told] frequently experi-
ence feelings of ridicule, humiliation and
embarrassment and feel disgusted and
ashamed of themselves.’ How well I
remember! In fact, this section brought back
painful memories of my own adolescence and
made me look at my own teenage son with a
mixture of wonder and respect.
I was particularly drawn to the description
of psychological challenges, which include the
forming of a new identity and of individuation.
We are also presented with the types of expec-
tations placed on these developing adults by
society. Such expectations, it is felt, can prove
overwhelming to many adolescents and are
often at odds with their own individual needs.
In contrast, we are told that parents do not
know what to expect and can become
distressed and disengaged from their son or
daughter when they behave in antisocial ways.
It is a sad irony, that parents can detach them-
selves from their teenagers at a time when they
are most needed.
The influence of childhood experiences and
the environmental stresses faced by some
adolescents are outlined. A number of hazards
are also described including drug abuse,
unsafe sexual practices, risk taking and weight
control. Finally, in Chapter 5, the types of
psychological disturbances that can occur in
adolescence are detailed. This is tempered by a
useful and timely description of how some
adolescents find ways in which they can cope.
Part 2 describes the proactive counselling
approach. The differences between counselling
adolescents and counselling adults or children
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004
are made clear. A proactive approach, it is
argued requires skills, strategies and a quality
of therapeutic relationship, which fits with the
adolescent’s own developmental needs. We are
also given a philosophical framework for this
approach. I was struck not only by it’s eclectic
nature, but also by how well it fitted with the
issues discussed in Part 1. Here, existentialism,
constructivism, Roger’s core conditions and
even transactional analysis are thrown together
in a pyramid, which seemed to work surpris-
ingly well.
There is also a description of the proactive
process. I was particularly intrigued, by the
section on joining with the adolescent style of
communication. Again, this seemed to fit very
well with the ideas and philosophies presented
in the book and struck me as a unique chal-
lenge for counselling psychologists. According
to the authors, adolescents are struggling with
changing constructs. They may have difficul-
ties describing their problems and may only be
able to focus on parts of their world.
Accordingly, the counselling process needs to
be flexible, spontaneous, creative and oppor-
tunistic drawing from a variety of approaches
and using a variety of strategies. Dialogue may
jump from one subject to another. In addition,
therapists must work with the possibility that
each session must be complete as it may be the
last one.
To conclude, the authors suggest that the
proactive approach should enable emotional
change through a change in thinking.
Facilitating emotional release is not considered
to be a sufficient strategy for change and may
pose risks when working with clients who
have difficulties controlling their anger. This
makes provocative reading for anyone
working from a purely person centred
approach.
In Part 3, various counselling strategies are
suggested. I was given an image of a therapy
room full of soft cushions, a sand tray, spare
chairs, miniature animals, and miscellaneous
objects such as a feather or a crystal ball. This
image appealed to me suggesting an environ-
ment where the adolescent is safe and free to
explore many ways of being and thinking.
Finally, Part 4 provides concrete examples
with two moving case studies. I was impressed
47
by the brevity of the interventions; work with
adolescents, it seems, is a question of removing
blockages to natural development. Only one
session may in fact be necessary to enable the
client to understand their situation sufficiently
and to put them in touch with their own
internal and external resources. I see this
intrinsic respect for the client as a stakeholder
in their own development as very uplifting.
On the whole, I found this a very useful and
interesting book. I would have liked to have
seen a clearer link between theory and some of
the strategies suggested in the book. As a coun-
selling psychologist in training, I also found it
difficult to integrate the approaches that I am
learning now with the philosophical frame-
work provided by the authors. However, the
book left me with a much greater under-
standing of adolescent development. I was
impressed by the skill and experience required
in order to work with this client group. The
book covered a broad range of areas and left
me feeling motivated to find out more. I would
recommend this book to anyone interested in
working in this area and in fact to any coun-
selling psychologist with adolescent children.
Rachel Lewis

BOOK REVIEWERS NEEDED

We are looking to add new talent to our panel of reviewers. If you would like to apply, please
send a covering letter, stating areas of interest, along with a sample book review if possible,
to Kasia Szymanska, Book Reviews Editor, CPR, Centre for Stress Management,
156 Westcombe Hill, London SE3 7DH.

48 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, November 2004

Newsletter Section

NEWSLETTER SECTION
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

The Division Committee has just had its annual residential meeting, which provides an opportu-
nity to discuss and debate issues at greater length than is normally possible. It took place in Cardiff
this year, and I would like to give you a summary of the proceedings so that you can see the sorts
of issues that we are dealing with at the moment.
On the agenda were items about changes to the BPS membership application process (stream-
lining it, thankfully), continuing negotiations over statutory regulation of the profession with the
Health Professions Council and all the implications of that, NHS workforce planning, funding
issues and Agenda for Change, the proposed new Psychology Associate grade in the NHS, devel-
opment of the DCoP website, updating the Division’s strategic plan, the possibilities of providing
some recompense for Division officers, rule changes to allow for affiliated regional groups, voting
rights for trainees, greater recognition of counselling psychologists working in forensic settings,
offering a Trainee Prize, structuring and recording CPD more formally, arrangements for coming
conferences, and improving Press and Publicity arrangements for the Division. In addition we
received written or verbal reports from Scotland and Wales and from the subcommittees of the
Division, and from our representatives on the many boards and committees of the Society and the
other organisations that we have links with.
We then had three sessions focused on particular issues. The first of these sessions was about
the current qualifications situation in the profession, where we have accredited university courses
leading to eligibility for Chartered status as a Counselling Psychologist and yet conferring very
different academic awards. Thus from one university successful trainees might apply for
Chartership with a Doctorate; from another with a Masters plus a ‘post-Masters’. And then there
are the Independent Route trainees with their varied learning experiences. The development of the
competence-based BPS Qualification in Counselling Psychology and the advent of Agenda for
Change in the NHS have highlighted the confusion in the current qualifications situation. Not
surprisingly, employing and funding bodies ask questions such as ‘Is yours a Doctoral or Masters
level profession?’ and ‘how can you claim parity with (such-and-such a group) when you don’t
have a Doctorate?’ and ‘How is so-and-so fully qualified with a Masters when so-and-so needs a
Doctorate?’ We can refer to the Chartership requirements but it cuts little ice outside the profession.
Divisional Committee is determined to address this problem, and will be seeking the co-operation
of the Society’s training and qualifications committees and the academic institutions involved.
The second session was focussed on the NHS. As this is the major employer of Counselling
Psychologists in the UK it is vital that the Division is fully engaged, proactive even, in discussion
and debate about all the many issues involved in working in this complex and changing environ-
ment, as well as in related public policy issues such as the new Mental Health Bill. However, we
are also aware that very many of our members do not work in this setting and that it must not be
allowed to dominate our agendas and our discussions. Therefore, the Divisional Committee is
reconvening an NHS subgroup that will take responsibility for NHS matters and will report to the
main committee. One of its first jobs will be ensure that we can cover the many meetings called by
the Department of Health and the NHS Executives in England, Scotland and Wales, often at short
notice. A very small number of us have been attempting to do this up to now, but the responsi-
bility needs to be shared more widely.
The third session looked at revising the Division’s Strategic Plan for the coming years.
We worked through the existing Strategic Plan and, picking up many of the themes of the previous
two sessions, set about prioritising our aims now. The results of this exercise are being collated
right now, and will be reported in the next CPR.

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I hope that you can see from this that the Division Committee is working hard for the profes-
sion; we can always do with more help, however, and statements of interest for joining the
subcommittees are welcome. You may also be reassured that all these business items do not
preclude debate about the really interesting stuff; who we are, what we do, and why we do it in
the ways that we do.

Alan Bellamy
Chair, Divisional Committee for Counselling Psychology.

DIVISIONAL NEWS

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) –

NEW SOCIETY REQUIREMENTS
By the time that you read this, Chartered Psychologists due to renew their practising certificate in
September should have received a pack advising them of the new Society requirements for
Continuing Professional Development. These will apply from September 2005, irrespective of the
number of hours worked or degree of experience, and renewal of the practicing certificate in 2005
will be linked to the submission of a completed CPD log. They will be asked to submit a CPD
record three months before the month in which the certificate is normally renewed (in this case
June). So, if your practising certificate renewal date is in January you will be asked to submit your
record in October 2005, and your CPD year will run from 1st October to the 30th September. All
chartered members currently holding practising certificates will receive this information on their
annual renewal date, and will be asked to submit their log nine months later.
Included in the mailing are a set of topic leaflets explaining CPD and its benefits, how the
Society approach was developed, how to plan and record CPD using the new website system, plus
a policy statement, and information on the generic National Occupational Standards. These are
also available on the Society website: www.bps.org.uk/cpd. Another leaflet explains the Society
requirements for CPD across divisions, but some divisions will also have, or be developing, their
own guidelines. Counselling psychologists have a current set of guidelines, which will be updated
during the coming year now that the new Society guidelines are finalised, and should consider
both sets together when planning their CPD. If you have misplaced yours, they will be available
on the website. This article is intended as a brief summary, and it is hoped that the leaflets will
answer any remaining queries. In addition a helpline will be made available by the Society before
the first submission date, for those who need it.
Those who do not have internet access can request a Microsoft ‘Word’ version of the planning
and recording documentation. But hand-written records cannot be accepted as CPD submissions,
and I would recommend the website log to all those able to use it, as it is a more useful tool. It has
been developed following consultation and pilot studies, and offers a confidential and straight-
forward system. When the submission date arrives it will flash a notification, and you can submit
your log online. Special arrangements will be made for those with visual impairments, who
should contact the Society’s CPD officer directly.
For monitoring purposes those who are members of more than one division will be asked to
nominate one that reflects their main practice. Those not belonging to any will also nominate one,
and may consider this an opportune time to join, in order to benefit from the support that divi-
sions will provide to members over time.
Those members not holding a practising certificate also have an ethical obligation to undertake
and maintain a record of CPD, and will find it useful to familiarise themselves with the information
contained in the leaflets on the Society’s website. While (hopefully) most of us do currently under-

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take CPD, and have at least a rough plan, fewer record it systematically, unless required to for a
specific reason, like an employer’s annual review. If this applies to you, then there are probably
many reasons why this task has not quite struggled to the top of your list. You may also be aware
of how difficult it is to write retrospectively without missing things out! Regular recording is not
time consuming once started, and those taking part in the trials have commented on how helpful
they found the process of planning and reflection. Once begun, the record is easily added to, giving
a useful summary record for reviews or job applications, detailing competencies, knowledge and
skills. There is also room for serendipitous learning to be recorded, and these unplanned experi-
ences sometimes offer great opportunities for growth, more so if time is allowed for reflection.
The new website recording system will be available only to members holding practising certifi-
cates in the first year, as this is the group for whom CPD is mandatory. But provided that the
system develops according to plan it is hoped to open its use to all members at a later date. Up to
five years of records can be kept online, and they are easy to print out, providing a permanent
diary of your development as a professional.
The membership voted to make CPD mandatory in 2000, and following this the Society began
developing this scheme, which is intended to be relevant for psychologists at all stages of their
careers, and in all sectors of employment. The Society-wide nature of the scheme and monitoring
is intended to ensure consistency of standards across divisions.
Consultation regarding the statutory regulation of psychologists under the Health Professions
Council (HPC) is ongoing. The HPC has just published information on their website concerning a
CPD consultation taking place this autumn, with a number of events planned around the country
which interested parties can attend. Further information is available on their website:
www.hpc-uk.org. The Society’s Standing Committee for CPD is keeping a watching brief on
developments, and the new society scheme is in line with the principles so far published. The HPC
has clearly stated that CPD will be linked with registration, and informal comments indicate that
the HPC as an umbrella organisation will look to the very diverse group of professional bodies
involved to provide the necessary support for CPD.
From September 2005 a random sample proportionate to each division will be selected for
detailed scrutiny by Divisional CPD assessors, who may request supporting information. This is
to enable the Society to undertake an evaluation of the CPD process, and ensure standards are
maintained. Before this begins, examples of good practice relevant to counselling psychology will
be made available and linked to the website. During trials participating counselling psychologists
submitted logs, which were recognised as excellent by all divisions for their developmental, reflec-
tive approach, and we will be drawing on these for our models. The Society is keen to have a
facilitative attitude, and where problems are identified, advice and support will be offered, and
time allowed to rectify matters. It is recognised that having a practising certificate withheld may
have very serious implications, and this will not be done while improvements are sought. While
the system will have recourse to a disciplinary procedure via the Conduct Committee if needed, it
is not intended to be punitive, but to enable members to demonstrate their ongoing competence
to employers, clients, and the wider public. However, it is important that the Society both main-
tains standards and is seen to do so as we move towards statutory regulation.
CPD is defined as ‘any process or activity that provides added value to the capability of the professional
through the increase of knowledge, skills and personal qualities necessary for the appropriate execution of
professional and technical duties, often termed competence’ (Professional Associations Research
Network).
The requirements are intended to focus on core outcomes (i.e. the development of competen-
cies) rather than a record of time spent, for instance on training courses. Practitioners are expected
to demonstrate their competence across four key areas within the range of their practice, and extend
it where appropriate in a considered and reflective way. As a guide, and in line with clinical
psychology, 70 hours has been suggested as the minimum number of hours likely to be spent to
maintain competence for counselling psychologists. The recommended minimum for educational

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NEWSLETTER SECTION
psychologists will remain 80, and some divisions like occupational psychology, have opted for 40.
Initially 70 may seem a lot, but once the range of core outcomes and suggested activities is under-
stood, which can include reading, supervision, development meetings and so on, people generally
find that they are already doing more than the minimum (but often forgetting to record it).
The ‘core outcomes’ have been based on the key roles of the National Occupational Standards
(NOS) for applied psychologists (generic), and there is an up-to-date listing on the website:
www.bps.org/nos. This gives a general explanation of what they are and their benefits, as well as
listing the first four key roles and underlying units and elements in detail. There is a planned
contextualisation of the standards for the divisions due this autumn – so expect more detailed and
relevant information later. Briefly they are:
1. Ethics – Develop, implement and maintain personal and professional standards and ethical
practice.
2. Practice – Apply psychological and related methods, concepts, models, theories and
knowledge derived from reproducible research findings.
3. Research and evaluation – Research and develop new and existing psychological methods,
concepts, models, theories and instruments in psychology.
4. Communication – Communicate psychological knowledge, principles, methods, needs and
policy requirements.
5. Training – Develop and train the application of psychological skills, knowledge, practices and
procedures.
6. Management – Manage the provision of psychological systems services and resources.
Individuals must be able to relate their CPD activities to at least some aspect of each of these
key roles. In summary here some of them may appear daunting – for instance for those in private
practice, number 3 – ’research’ might seem unreasonably demanding, but the detail of each role
reveals levels accessible to all, so please check before worrying. If you conduct a systematic audit
of your practice, or obtain client feedback, this can count. Plus, it is to be hoped that this process
will encourage members to seek collaboration with others who are local, or share interests, and
will stimulate more good, relevant research. If you still have concerns once you have read the
detailed leaflet, please ask.
The last two apply where relevant to an individual’s role as a practising psychologist. In addi-
tion all psychologists will need to make sure that they maintain an up-to-date knowledge of equal
opportunities issues and how they impact on day-to-day work, in line with the Society’s Equal
Opportunities Policy.
The range of activities relevant to CPD is broad, and counselling psychologists will already be
engaging in many as part of their professional life. Supervision, for instance, both received and
conferred, and personal counselling for professional purposes. Systematic reflection on practice
through case discussion, and learning from participation in multidisciplinary meetings are normal
(good) practice in many settings. For those who work alone, actively seeking opportunities to
network can match this. Reading is made more fun through setting up groups with shared inter-
ests, who meet to discuss papers or topics, and it is hoped that more structures to support this will
develop as the system rolls out. Mentoring through currently provided supervision (by agreement),
or peer support is very helpful in planning development goals, and recommended by the society.
Later, if further evidence is required for monitoring purposes, their support may also be useful.
Of course post-qualification courses or masterclasses may be included in your plan, and the
branches and divisions have plans in the pipeline to offer more, both nationally and locally. But this
list demonstrates that in a financially difficult situation, CPD does not have to be expensive.
Employers will also be made aware of society requirements, and this is one strong reason for recom-
mending minimum hours, so that they understand time is necessary to maintain competence.
Another way to develop as a professional and contribute to your CPD outcomes is to become
involved in the activities of the division through volunteering for committee work, or helping out
at events. Expenses are paid to attend committee, and participants have the opportunity to

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network, as well as contribute ideas. This is not just for the most senior, and it is an exciting time
to become involved, either locally or nationally. If you think this might be for you, make contact
and register an interest. The CPD committee is looking for new members interested in supporting
the development of local informal networks. Also if you have experience in assessment and
would be interested in being part of the team who monitor CPD logs contact me by e-mail on:
v.purcell@reading.ac.uk.
A lot of work has been put in by division members to reach this stage of development, both
through working at committee level and participating in the trials, so many thanks to them, past and
present. As the process rolls out in the next year adjustments will need to be made where problems
arise. If your situation is an exception, because you are returning to work after a career break or
exemption, details of what to do are in the leaflets. It is not possible to cover all detail of the scheme
here, but I hope to have given an outline of the work in progress, and though change is always
anxiety provoking, that it will be a positive experience for you (overall). Think of it as self-care.

Vivienne Purcell
Chair, CPD Sub-committee.

NEWS FROM THE SURREY COURSE

As you read this those of us on the Surrey course are several months into the new academic year.
While some of the experiences of this time of year feel familiar – for example, the getting to know
the new trainees will be well under way and established trainees will have made the move onto
the next stage of their training – this year is different for us for a number of reasons.
Firstly, everyone knows that training courses are evolving and we are looking forward to
‘phase 2’ of grappling with the new Society criteria for counselling psychology training in the UK.
Phase 1 allowed us to review the course as it currently is and to map it onto the new criteria. Phase
2 allows us the chance to think of new and creative developments with which to add to (or
decrease) different aspects of the course. If our experience so far is anything to go by we will be
surprised at how easy some shifts are – then at other times we are confused as to why on earth
principles that in principle seem to make sense seem unwieldy, unhelpful and sometimes counter-
productive. This is a project we look forward to as it gives all of the stakeholders in the Surrey
course a chance to discuss issues of interest to us all – trainees, staff, the University and, of course,
colleagues in the Society.
Secondly, and much more personally, we are delighted that Dr Elena Touroni was able to join
us as professional tutor. We are very lucky to have Dr Touroni join us as not only is she a keen and
dedicated counselling psychologist but she is also a graduate of the course and brings a very
important perspective to the course team. It is rare that we benefit from someone’s experience of
the course and of the range of NHS settings that Dr Touroni is familiar with.
Thirdly, and this is also very personal for us all, we of course have to note that this year is also
different because Dr Margaret Tholstrup retired from her post with us at the end of the last acad-
emic year and has moved onto a range of exciting projects. It is strange to think of Surrey without
Margaret as she made a major impact on the course, on our view of training and on the experience
of many a trainee in her three and a half years on the course. While we are attempting to leave
Margaret to wander the hills of the lake district, the Alps or wherever her travels take her, I am
sure that we will not be completely successful in this regard and that we will manage occasional
interruptions to her new ventures to draw on her wisdom and experience and to collaborate on
exciting new projects.
In an effort to address some of the issues raised in my ‘Talking Point’ article in this issue (where
I reflect on the inevitable yet worthwhile toll that our profession can take on us and ponder whether
it is possible to fully prepare people for the journey ahead), this time of year sees us preparing for
our Open Day in January. This is a time when we welcome a new group of people interested in the

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profession and the course and try to be clear about the joys and the stresses of training. We try to
be clear about both experiences so that people can prepare themselves as fully as possible and dedi-
cate themselves as well as they can to the career of their choice. So if you are interested or have
friends or colleagues interested in training, let them know that we will be opening our doors in
January and hope to meet as many new people as are keen to come and see us.

Dr Martin Milton
Course Director, PsychD Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology, University of Surrey.

CORRESPONDENCE
Dear Editor,

Sure Start — A New Initiative

In October I returned to Sunderland from Scotland to take up a new post. Some of you will know
that my work is rooted in attachment theory and that at the 2001 Glasgow BPS Conference I gave
a seminar on Patricia Crittenden’s work in this field. Many years ago she developed an innovative
observation technique of the interaction patterns of the mother-infant dyad (the CARE Index) (see
www.patcrittenden.com). This approach has become the cornerstone in primary prevention, early
intervention and infant mental health in the Sunderland Infant programme and became part in
one of the first Sure Starts in the country in 1999 (see Svanberg & Jennings, 2001,
October–December). The Sunderland Infant Programme (UK): Reflections on the first year.
The Signal, Newsletter of the World Association for Infant Mental Health, 9, 1–4.) There are now
seven Sure Start Programmes in Sunderland, which offer services to families with under-four-
year-old children.
The Sure Start aim is: to work with parents-to-be, parents and children to promote the
physical, intellectual and social development of babies and young children particularly those who
are disadvantaged – so that they can flourish at home and when they go to school, and thereby
break the cycle of disadvantage for the current generation of young children.
Objective 1: Improving social and emotional development – in particular, by supporting the
development of good relationships between parents and children, enabling early identification of
difficulties, helping families to function effectively and promoting social and emotional well-being.
Objective 2: Improving health, by supporting parents in caring for their children to promote
healthy development before and after birth.
Objective 3: Improving children’s ability to learn, especially by encouraging high quality
environments and childcare that promote early learning, provide stimulating and enjoyable play,
improve language skills and ensure early identification and support of children with special needs.
Objective 4: Strengthening families and communities by involving families in building the
community’s capacity to sustain the programme and thereby create pathways out of poverty.
Over the years I have got used to adults coming to me in my power base; now I go to them in
their homes – at first unsettling but I am amazed at how quickly I feel comfortable with this.
At the moment I work individually with mothers who have been referred by Health Visitors who
have identified psychological/emotional/behavioural factors, which are interfering with the
development of a secure attachment of the infant to the parent. In January I began training in the
Crittenden Care Index and in the next two years further training will enable me to become one of
a new breed of psychologists in this country: an Infant Mental Health Psychologist. As I progress
next year I will work with parents and infants in their homes – the big difference in this approach
is that the infant is the client; we look at what the child needs and how adults may meet these
needs rather than how can change in adults affect the child as a sort of ‘spinoff.

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So it is a bottom-up approach as opposed to a top-down one.
The first point of contact with an expectant mother is the Health Visitor and the majority have
taken enthusiastically to the idea of promoting secure attachment in the mother-infant dyad. They
are the ideal people to develop a good, trusting relationship with the mother and this facilitates
the acceptance of having the interaction between mum and baby videoed (for three or four
minutes) by them.
A major part of my work will be to act as a consultant to the Health Visitors and offer reflec-
tive supervision, and the psychologists and psychological therapist who work in neighbouring
Sure Start projects have also adopted the reflective practitioner approach.
The Strange Situation (Ainsworth, 1978) is used to assess attachment patterns and strategies in
infants who are old enough to explore (>12 months) and who have developed ‘person-permanence’
(Bell, 1970). This involves a series of three-minute, increasingly stressful episodes separated by
opportunities for recovery. (I have not the space to detail the procedure here but the child is placed
in a room with new toys and the mother enters and leaves at designated intervals.) The rationale is
that perception of stress should activate attachment behaviour and the presence of the new inter-
esting toys should elicit exploratory behaviour. This allows us to see how the child balances the two
systems and how the attachment figure is used as part of the strategy for coping with stress.
This is a new and exciting field of mental health work with the emphasis on the healthy devel-
opment of trust, empathy, impulse control and self-regulation in the young child. It is ideally
suited to the counselling psychologist with an interest in developmental psychology and psycho-
dynamic practice.

Louise Turner-Young
Sure Start – Monument, 7 Westbourne Terrace, Shiney Row, Houghton Le Spring DH4 4QU.
Tel: 0191 385 1800.

DIVISION OF COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY – INCREASE IN

MEMBERSHIP FEES
Over the last three years, the professional activity of the Division has increased substantially.
Through the work of a number of DCoP subcommittees, Counselling Psychology is strongly repre-
sented within the British Psychological Society, and also to external bodies such as AMICUS and
the Department of Health. The Division continues to organise a number of events each year,
including its Annual Conference, and several training events.
Following on from this, it is of little surprise that the expenditure of the Division has increased
considerably. And as we move towards Statutory Registration, the Division of Counselling
Psychology will continue to take an ever more active role in the development of professional
psychology, resulting in additional administrative expense.
Membership fees were last increased in January 2002. In May 2004, the proposal that fees be
increased was approved by members and agreed by the Society’s Board of Directors.
As of 1 January 2005, annual fees for membership of the Division of Counselling Psychology
will be as follows:
Accredited members .........................................................£45
Accredited (first two-years post-accreditation) ...........£35
General members...............................................................£35
Affiliate members ..............................................................£12
Members in training..........................................................£12

Jennie Rowden
Honorary Secretary to the Division of Counselling Psychology.

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TALKING POINT
A series of short pieces by invited Counselling Psychologists on subjects of topical interest and
debate. Responses to the views expressed in ‘Talking Point’ are welcomed: write to the Editor
marking your letter ‘for correspondence’.

IF YOU SWIM … YOU GET WET!

Martin Milton
In response to my question about how he managed to be so calm in the face of imminent pain and
damage when gloving up to fight, Steve, a boxer friend of mine looked at me quizzically, paused
and then shrugged his shoulders saying: ‘Well … if you swim, you get wet!’ With that he headed
off to the ring for his match leaving me to reflect on his realism and wondering what the coun-
selling psychology equivalent would be of the punishment he absorbed in the ring that night and
the unwaveringly accepting stance he took.
I look back at my own experiences of training (both in the gym and as a counselling psychol-
ogist) and know that as well as the excitement about being in training and the possibilities it opens
up, it can also be a place where some of the knocks are experienced the most forcefully. The pain
caused by missing the heavy bag and hyper-extending the elbow teaches a very sharp lesson and
has its parallel in feedback that I was not expecting from my tutor. I remember my tutor’s sugges-
tion that I was being ‘facetious’ in one of my first essays and on having this essay returned I went
home quite alarmed and even took this to therapy. This time, it wasn’t my arm that was out of
sorts but my world view that had been put out of joint. Gone was the illusion that training would
be easy and my image of therapists (and trainers) as ‘nice’, ‘warm’, ‘soft and fluffy’ were, as my
father might say, ‘gone for a burton’! Who knew that my tutors would (quite appropriately) call a
spade a spade! I am, of course, thankful that the loud, aggressive (yet usually well intentioned)
testosterone-ladened yelling of the gym was not enacted so concretely in my professional training
– but it still packed a punch.
I love the reading that the profession requires of us – in training I took a tour from Rogers to
Jung to Beck and back with a bit of Zen thrown in. I love trying to use what I am reading to assist
me to understand the circumstances of my clients. And I remember feeling as thrilled as I had
hoped when it all came together and my client and I had the ‘aha’ experience. However, I also
found that some reading was beyond me – Kierkegaard depressed me and reading ‘manualised
guides to treatment’ was more soul destroying than facing the dementors on my own without
Harry Potter to protect me!!! I experienced embarrassment when told in group-supervision that I
had misunderstood theory or used it in an illogical manner and there were times when I was
mortified that I had missed some crucial (and to others rather obvious) communication from a
client. I mean who knew that when a client dreams that you arrive in armour on a white horse to
rescue them from the marauding masses that the erotic aspects of the relationship require rather
urgent attention. Thinking back, I realise that I felt prepared for the joys and excitements of
training but was, to be honest, rather more than a little miffed, that no one warned me of, prepared
me for or protected me from, the consistently embarrassing, scary and disappointing experiences
that training offers. It was difficult reconciling what I wanted (knowledge, competence and
esteem) with what, at times, I received (confusion, fear and exposure).
As boxers have to take shots that wind them or disorient them, disappointment seems to be
one of those inevitabilities that influences the practice of therapy – and this took me a while to
recognise. Even now that I ‘know’ this, I am not always sure that I have developed a suitably thick,
yet sensitive skin. I remember not having much patience when clients did not ‘do well’ in therapy
(now I am not even sure what ‘doing well’ means!) and I was knocked for six when I was experi-
enced as the ‘disappointing’ one. Receiving a tirade of putdowns (or sometimes being told of my
inadequacies in the most polite way possible) when I had worked as hard as I could to understand

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the client, made an appropriate formulation and gone out of my way to offer the most appropriate
frame possible made no sense to me! How could they think this about me? Couldn’t they see that
I was different to those that had gone before (I hoped at least!). This disoriented me for a while.
Supervisors worked with me to understand that this is precisely the interpersonal experience that
‘is the stuff of therapy’. Despite this I couldn’t help but feel disappointment.
Like a boxer who has gassed himself (or herself) seven rounds into a 10-round fight chasing
the opponent who slips out of reach at every turn, inertia is one of those things that is unwanted
but often inevitable in our profession. It is not something that is simply within our own powers to
avoid either. As the boxer has to fight the fight that his opponent brings, the counselling psychol-
ogist has to engage with the client as they are – rather than as the manual says they will be. The
boxer may have to slug it out even if he wanted to box and the counselling psychologist may have
to join the client in their intransigent depression – with all the consequences that this brings. Both
need the strength and determination to survive the onslaught.
It is also not just the client that can affect us so significantly, but also very importantly, the
context can too. One of the things I struggled with while working in the context of the Health
Service was the inevitability of nothing happening despite an enormous amount of effort being
put in. So much gets said. So much money gets poured in. So many policy documents get written
– yet it still feels as if you are in the ring with a crooked ref. No matter what you do he is not going
to let you win! Without clarity and fairness (about the structural and managerial requirements of
therapy) the emotional difficulties of psychological work are exacerbated exponentially. Any one
of these may seem unimportant on their own but the fact that room booking sheets are not
respected, people interrupt your sessions, colleagues fail to understand that it is unhelpful to
discuss a recent miscarriage outside the consulting room door and the like really take its toll and
the outcome can be a failure to last the distance. The toll on the therapist can be lack of morale,
withdrawal and disenchantment that might even overwhelm the pleasures of the work.
I could go on I suppose, but let me aim for the good old-fashioned early stoppage. Like Amir
Khan, Lennox Lewis, my friend Steve and countless counselling psychologists before me, I can
look at my efforts and be very pleased. I have ‘got stuck in’ and ‘got the job done’. I have enjoyed
(and am enjoying) many highlights and I value them immensely. Am I simply lucky? I don’t really
think so. I think that I am reaping the benefits that come from staying with the struggle that
requires effort, determination and a degree of ‘heart’. It is this that makes the job all the more
worthwhile.
These thoughts do make me wonder though – is there a way – or are there ways – of allowing
candidates for the profession to know the toll that the profession might take on them as clearly as
aspiring boxers know the risk of their calling? I am not sure there is. Like most things in life even
with open days, advice from careers guidance staff and discussions with course teams, the idea of
entering the profession is different to the experience of it. And of course, the specific struggle is
different for each of us – mine is different to yours simply because I am different to you. That is
unavoidable and if we are to benefit from being in the profession it shouldn’t be avoided. So when
I think of my own circumstances I think that Steve was right – I wanted to swim … so I had to get
wet – and on reflection that isn’t a bad thing at all. I hope that others think about their own dive
into the water and that their is as wonderful as my own.

Dr Martin Milton
University of Surrey.

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2004 57

NEWSLETTER SECTION
EVENTS DIARY

Format of events listed is:

date: event
venue
contact

NOVEMBER 2004

5–7: BPS Psychology of Education Section Annual Conference 2004 –

Creativity, Thinking and Education
University of Glasgow.
Richard Remedios (papers, posters and symposia)
E-mail: richard.remedios@stir.ac.uk
Penny Munn (accommodation information)
E-mail: penelope.munn@strath.ac.uk

20: UK National Work-Stress Network Annual Conference

Hillscourt Conference Centre, Rednal, Birmingham.
Les Roberts, 33 Old Street, Upton-upon-Severn, Worcester WR8 0HN.
Tel: 01684 591156 E-mail: les@roberts.farmcom.net

24–26: European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology Annual Conference

Oporto, Portugal.
Jonathan Houdmont, Institute of Work, Health & Organisations, University of Nottingham,
William Lee Buildings 8, Nottingham Science & Technology Park, University Boulevard,
Nottingham NG7 2RQ.
E-mail: jonathan.houdmont@nottingham.ac.uk or oporto2004@ea-ohp.org
Web: www.ea-ohp.org

26–28: Scottish Branch Annual Conference 2004: ‘Psychology in today’s society’

Fisher’s Hotel, Pitlochry, Scotland.
Dr Tony Anderson, Dept. of Psychology, University of Strathclyde, 40 George Street,
Glasgow G1 1QE.
Tel: 0141 548 2583 E-mail: tony.anderson@strath.ac.uk
Web: www.bps.org.uk/sub-syst/scottish/index.cfm

DECEMBER 2004

6: BPS London Lectures 2004

Kensington Town Hall, London.
BPS Conference Office.
Tel: 0116 252 9555 Fax: 0116 255 7123 E-mail: londonlectures@bps.org.uk

58 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2004

 NEWSLETTER SECTION
2005

JANUARY 2005

12–14: Division of Occupational Psychology Annual Conference

Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth near Warwick.
(www.paramount-hotels.co.uk/chesford_grange)
BPS Conference Office: Marie Petcher.
Tel: 0116 252 9555 Fax: 0116 255 7123 E-mail: dopconf05@bps.org.uk

MARCH/APRIL 2005

30 March – 2 April: BPS Quinquennial Conference – Psychology for the 21st Century
University of Manchester.
BPS Conference Office: Helen Wilson.
Tel: 0116 252 9555 Fax: 0116 255 7123 E-mail: helwil@bps.org.uk
Web: www.bps.org.uk/events/ac2005/index.cfm

MAY 2005

12–15: XIIth European Congress on Work and Organizational Psychology

Istanbul, Turkey.
Handan Kepir Sinangil
E-mail: sinangil@boun.edu.tr
Web: www.eawop2005.org

20–21: British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy 11th Annual Research
Conference
Birmingham.
Angela Couchman, Research Office Manager, British Association for Counselling and
Psychotherapy, BACP House, 35-37 Albert Street, Rugby, Warwickshire CV21 2SG.
Direct line: 0870 443 5237 E-mail: angela.couchman@bacp.co.uk
Web: www.bacp.co.uk/research/conference2005/index.html

JUNE 2005

18–21: 9th ECOTS European Conference on Traumatic Stress

Stockholm, Sweden.
Tina Holmgren, Information Manager, The Swedish National Association for Mental Health
(sfph), Box 3445, SE-103 69 Stockholm, Sweden.
Tel: +46 (0)8 34 70 65 Fax: + 46 (0)8 32 88 75 E-mail: christina.holmgren67@telia.com
Web: www.stocon.se/ecots2005

JULY 2005

3–8: 9th European Congress of Psychology

Granada, Spain.
Tel: +34 91 444 9020 Fax: +34 91 309 5615 E-mail: ecp2005@ecp2005.com
Web: www.ecp2005.com

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2004 59

NEWSLETTER SECTION
4–6: 1st International Conference on Post-Cognitivist Psychology
(Organised by BPS Scottish Branch)
Glasgow.
Dr Tony Anderson, Dept. of Psychology, University of Strathclyde, 40 George Street,
Glasgow G1 1QE.
E-mail: Tony.Anderson@strath.ac.uk
Web: www.strath.ac.uk/conferences/postcog2005/index.htm

SEPTEMBER

7–9: Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference 2005:

‘Health Psychology across the lifespan’.
Coventry University.
Heather Buchanan
Tel: 08700 407285 E-mail: h.buchanan@ibss1.derby.ac.uk
Or BPS Conference Office: Lorna Savage.
Tel: 0116 252 9555 Fax: 0116 255 7123 E-mail: lorsav@bps.org.uk

Please send details of all appropriate conferences or reference websites to me:

By post: People in Progress Ltd, 5 Rochester Mansions, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2HA.
By fax: 01273 726180
By e-mail: CPRconferences@pip.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jennifer Liston-Smith

60 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2004

Volume 19 Number 1 February 2004

VOLUME 19 INDEX
● ●

Editorial 2
Alan Bellamy

Guest Editorial: An introduction to the 3

Special Issue on Case Studies
Malcolm Cross, John Davy & Rachel Tribe

The experience of silence: A client case study 5

Angela Harris

A question of dependency: A study of a client suffering from 13

panic disorder with agoraphobia
Joanna Wood

The functions of case studies: Representation or 22

persuasive construction?
John Davy

Book Reviews 39

Newsletter Section
Letter from the Chair 42
Divisional News
The BPS Qualification in Counselling Psychology – A major revision 43
Diane Hammersley
Training Workshops 45
Division website 45
News from the Surrey course, 2003 46
Martin Milton
Agenda for change – a reminder 46
Events Diary 48
Talking Point 50
Ray Woolfe

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2004 61

VOLUME 19 INDEX
Volume 19 ● Number 2 ● May 2004

Editorial 2
Alan Bellamy

When ‘Perfect’ clients receive ‘Imperfect’ therapy: 3

A cognitive approach to working with perfectionism
Sarah Corrie

The therapeutic relationship in cognitive-behavoural therapy 14

Theodoros Giovazolias

Observing John – an exercise in learning 22

Mary Jenkins

Three years of counselling psychology in an 31

Intensive Care Department
Anthony Hazzard & Beverley Henderson

Discussion paper: Psychological Testing 37

Heather Sequeira & Susan Van Scoyoc, Sub-Committee for Practice and Research

Book Review 41

Newsletter Section
Letter from the Chair 47
Divisional News
News from the Surrey course 48
Martin Milton
News from the Wolverhampton course 48
Nicky Hart
Correspondence 49
Talking Point 50
Alan Bellamy
Events Diary 51

62 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2004

Volume 19 Number 3 August 2004

VOLUME 19 INDEX
● ●

Editorial 2
Alan Bellamy

Seeing is believing: Adopting cognitive therapy for 3

visual impairment
Sarah Supple & Sarah Corrie

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing in a County police force 13

David Murphy & Judith Sullivan

Counselling psychology and psychiatric classification: 23

Clash or co-existence?
Richard Golsworthy

Book Review 30

Newsletter Section
Letter from the Chair 32
Divisional News
Update on Funded Training 32
Pam James
News from the Roehampton course 36
New Members 36
Networking Contacts 37
Divisional Committee for 2004/2005 38
Correspondence 40
Talking Point 42
Susan Van Scoyoc
Events Diary 45

Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2004 63

VOLUME 19 INDEX
Volume 19 ● Number 4 ● November 2004
Editorial 2
Alan Bellamy
Guest Editorial: Introduction to the Special Edition 3
Pavlo Kanellakis
Counselling psychology and psychological testing: 5
Professional issues
Susan Van Scoyoc
Using psychometrics in an NHS addictions service 8
Jo Ploszajski
Embracing psychometric assessment 18
Courtney G. Raspin & Pavlo Kanellakis
Counselling psychology and psychometrics: 25
A South African perspective
Jace Pillay
The use of psychological tests and measurements by 32
psychologists in the role of counsellor in Greece
Sofia Triliva
Hard science in a soft world (a personal view) 41
Bruce Grimley
Book Reviews 45
Newsletter Section
Letter from the Chair 49
Divisional News
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) – 50
New Society requirements
Vivienne Purcell
News from the Surrey course 53
Martin Milton
Correspondence 54
Talking Point 55
Martin Milton
Events Diary 57
Index to Volume 19 60

64 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, August 2004

Notes for Contributors to
Counselling Psychology
Review
Contributions on all aspects of Counselling Psychology are invited.

Academic Papers: Manuscripts of approximately 4000 words excluding references should be typewritten,
double-spaced with 1'' margins on one side of A4, and include a word count. An abstract of no more than 250 words
should precede the main body of the paper. On a separate sheet give the author’s name, address and contact details,
qualifications, current professional affiliation or activity, and a statement that the paper is not under consideration
elsewhere.This category may also include full-length in-depth case discussions, as well as research and
theoretical papers.

Issues from Practice: Shorter submissions, of between 1000 and 3000 words, are invited that discuss and debate
practice issues and may include appropriately anonymised case material, and/or the client’s perspective.
As with academic papers, on a separate sheet give the author’s name, address and contact details, qualifications,
current professional affiliation or activity, and a statement that the paper is not under consideration elsewhere.

These two categories of submission are refereed and so the body of the paper should be free of information
identifying the author.

Other Submissions: News items and reports, letters, details of conferences, courses and forthcoming events,
and book reviews are all welcomed.These are not refereed but evaluated by the Editor, and should conform to the
general guidelines given below.

● Authors of all submissions should follow the Society’s guidelines for the use of non-sexist language and all
references must be presented in APA style (see the Code of Conduct, Ethical Principles and Guidelines,
and the Style Guide, both available from The British Psychological Society).

● Graphs, diagrams, etc., should be in camera-ready form and must have titles. Written permission should be
obtained by the author for the reproduction of tables, diagrams, etc., taken from other sources.

● Three hard copies of papers subject to refereeing should be supplied, together with a large s.a.e. and a copy of the
submission on disk or CD-ROM (if possible save the document both in its original word-processing format and as
an ASCII file, with diagrams in their original format and as a TIFF or an EPS).Two hard copies of other submissions
should be supplied. Subject to prior agreement with the Editor, however, items may be submitted as e-mail
attachments.

● Proofs of papers will be sent to authors for correction of typesetting errors, and will need to be returned
promptly.

Deadlines for notices of forthcoming events, letters and advertisements are listed below:
For publication in Copy must be received by
February 5 November
May 5 February
August 5 May
November 5 August

All submissions should be sent to: Dr Alan Bellamy, Editor, Counselling Psychology Review, Brynmair Clinic,
Goring Road, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire SA15 3HF.

Book reviews should be sent to: Kasia Szymanska, Book Reviews Editor, Centre for Stress Management,
156 Westcombe Hill, London SE3 7DH.
 ISSN 0269–6975

© The British Psychological Society 2004

St Andrews House, 48 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 7DR

Printed and published in England by The British Psychological Society