What is Feedback Informed Treatment?

What is feedback informed treatment?

Answer: 

Effective counselling takes commitment from not only the person being counselled, but also the counsellor. One strategy that has been proven to improve the effectiveness of counselling is feedback informed treatment.

A counsellor may often ask how you are doing, but how often have you been asked how the counsellor is going? With feedback informed treatment, a counsellor will collect information and feedback to improve their practice. If there is something that is working well, the counsellor should know, just as he or she should know when something is not working.

The collection of feedback should be a formal process, through surveys, and conversation. Formally collecting feedback has shown to boost the effectiveness of treatment, meaning the client will get better treatment, and be more likely to attend all sessions. It is also more likely that less sessions will be needed, and the chance of future counselling reduced, based on more effective treatment.

True counselling professionals are always seeking to improve their practice and find new ways to be effective. Every client is different, and therefore this feedback is essential to finding an effective way of working with, and supporting each individual. If a counsellor is failing to meet the needs of a client in any way, being made aware of this through formal feedback is very important. This allows the counsellor to learn from this failure, and implement changes that will better support the client moving forward.

Feedback informed treatment gives the counsellor a chance to discover the needs of a client, and in return, the client will receive better service, and a more positive overall experience.