8.4 Evaluating Knowledge and Skills

Individual performance in an often abstract field such as counseling is challenging to quantify regarding outcomes and effectiveness. Further complicating this issue, most counselors hold inaccurate beliefs about their skill level relative to their peers. For example, in a recent interdisciplinary sample of 129 mental health professionals in private practice, roughly 25% assessed themselves in the 90th percentile of effectiveness. In contrast, none of the sample assessed themselves as performing below average relative to their peers (Walfish et al., 2012). These findings are understandable. It is psychologically uncomfortable to admit that they are struggling to perform adequately in their profession of choice, and doing so can have occupational, financial, and regulatory consequences. We take the position, however, that waning competence in a given area represents an opportunity for growth, learning, and self-reflection. The adage bears repeating that counselors are, in fact, people too. We make mistakes, we may get too comfortable practicing in the ways that have worked for us in the past, and we are, at times, more impacted by external events than we expect to be. What is important, however, is that in the face of these characteristically human difficulties we face, we are willing to change and, if necessary, step back until we can work with our clients effectively.

Self-Monitoring of Knowledge and Skills

When practicing in the field, it is important to be continually aware of our knowledge, competencies, and skills. One may find themselves asked by a supervisor to practice in an area where they need more experience. Similarly, counselors working to establish competency in new modalities might wonder when it is appropriate for them to begin seeing clients without supervision. While seeking the opinion of a consultant or supervisor is always advised and should be done continually, there will come times when the only person able to determine appropriate practice is the counselor. When you find yourself in situations such as those outlined above, consider the following:

• What would my colleagues say if I were to conduct an honest case presentation of my last few clients within this area of practice? Do I appear to be a competent practitioner? Why or why not?
• (If you have not practiced with clients in a given domain) If I were to present my qualifications to practice in this area to a room of my colleagues, what would they say? Why?
• Have I undertaken the steps necessary to achieve competence in this area?

Monitoring for Effectiveness

An additional strategy that assists counselors in developing a holistic understanding of their efficacy in practice is to engage in ongoing monitoring of effectiveness with clients. This should be accomplished through a combination of objective measures such as re-evaluation of key symptoms using validated psychometric instruments (i.e., PHQ-9, GAD-7; Kroenke et al., 2001; Spitzer et al., 2006) as well as more subjective feedback such as survey responses from clients. It is important to note that doing so directly in session may be inadvisable when seeking client feedback. Transference phenomena, power dynamics, and cultural factors related to interactions with authority figures may create pressure to respond favorably or make it uncomfortable for the client to provide constructive feedback, especially if it is related to areas of counselor growth. Instead, to create an environment conducive to feedback, we recommend regularly (roughly every 3-6 months) distributing a short survey to clients encompassing areas such as:

• Thoughts regarding counseling progress.
• Anything that is working exceptionally well for clients.
• What clients would like to see done differently?
• Social and cultural sensitivity of the counselor.
• Suggestions for future directions of the counseling process.

While this practice suggestion demonstrates best practices with clients, we also recognize the difficulty inherent in translating this strategy into clinical practice. It is vital to be mindful of client confidentiality when collecting any form of clinical information, including feedback, and outside of private practice, counselors often have little say in the more prominent agency’s feedback and data collection procedures. Thus, we present the previous guidelines in the hopes that they serve as potential ideas and inspirations for working creatively to incorporate best practices with future supervisors, agencies, and clinical settings.

Contemporary Issues

Burnout and Competency

Burnout is a particularly insidious form of impairment that, when left unchecked, can dramatically impact one’s ability to counsel effectively. While accurate experimental studies on the matter are infeasible, self-perceived burnout among mental health providers has been associated with other self-perceived impairments in domains such as quality of work, energy levels, patience, communication, listening abilities, and client outcomes (Salyers et al., 2015). This, coupled with the finding that roughly 40% of mental health providers (and counseling graduate students) experience burnout (O’Connor et al., 2018; Warlick et al., 2021), establishes burnout as a key concern among practicing clinicians. Engaging in ongoing self-care and wellness efforts while promoting a healthy work-life balance are some of the best protections one can put in place to prevent burnout from impacting one’s competence to practice. Readers are advised to refer to our self-care section in Chapter 3 for additional suggestions.

Accurate Advertising of Knowledge and Skills

A thorough understanding of one’s competencies, knowledge, and skills is essential to inform one’s practice and allow prospective clients to make informed decisions regarding the services they seek.

According to the ACA (2014):

This means that before listing a competency or specialization on a publicly available medium such as a provider directory or agency biography, one must ensure that they meet the qualifications for competency and have the appropriate credentials to back up their claims. Another emerging practice that promotes client autonomy is providing clients with the counselor’s resume or Curriculum Vitae during informed consent proceedings. Providing valuable, real-world data to back up a counselor’s qualifications and experience sets the tone for clients to be informed partners and collaborators within the counseling process rather than further promoting a power and knowledge differential.