Counselling in UK secondary schools: what the research is telling us

This keynote talk will present a state-of-the-art review of what we know about the nature, and outcomes, of school-based counselling in the UK: who attends, how they use the counselling, and whether or not it leads to reductions in psychological distress. The presentation begins with a summary of findings from a 2009 review of school-based counselling, which drew together data from around 30 evaluation and audit studies. It then goes on to discuss how these findings are supported, and challenged, by evidence from the recently completed evaluation of the Welsh Government school-based counselling Strategy, which has now delivered over 10,000 episodes of counselling to secondary school pupils across Wales. Finally, the review will look at recent attempts by BACP and colleagues to develop more rigorous tests of the effectiveness of counselling using randomised controlled designs.