Does counselling work?

Research has consistently found that counselling does help people.

For instance, solid research has found that there has been reliable improvement for 75% of people accessing counselling (Mellor-Clark et al., 2001), that counselling has greater effectiveness than usual care (e.g. Bower et al., 2011; Cape et al., 2010; Hill et al., 2008; Rowland et al., 2000) and that clients tend to be highly satisfied with counselling (Hill et al, 2008). There is evidence that counselling is as equally effective as cognitive behavioural therapy (Cape et al, 2010), that counselling clients tend to be more satisfied with their treatment than CBT clients (Hakkart-Van Roijin et al, 2006) and that counselling is more effective than medication for certain conditions (Cuijpers et al, 2013). For more information, see this paper by the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists http://www.bacp.co.uk/docs/pdf/12228_research%20evidence%20summary.pdf

However, counselling is not a miracle cure. It requires hard work and commitment, and in some cases it can take a long time before the desired change occurs. Many studies have shown that the quality of the relationship between the counsellor and client has a greater impact on the outcome than the type of counselling offered. For that reason I suggest that if you are interested that we meet and see how we get along.