Introduction.

This post discusses how the use of a survey containing 34 questions (called “CORE-OM”) allows me to demonstrate that counselling can improve your distress; specifically your well being, symptoms, functioning and risk states (eg self-harm). Further, that these changes can become more permanent than simply temporary relief due to, say, simply talking through matters as you might with a friend or family member.

What is CORE?

The CORE Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) is a client self-report questionnaire designed to be administered before and after therapy. The client is asked to respond to 34 questions about how they have been feeling over the last week, using a 5-point scale ranging from ‘not at all’ to ‘most or all of the time’. The 34 items of the measure cover four dimensions: subjective well-being; problems/symptoms; life functioning; and risk/harm. The responses are designed to be averaged by the practitioner to produce a mean score to indicate the level of current psychological global distress (from ‘healthy’ to ‘severe’). The questionnaire is repeated after the last session of treatment; comparison of the pre- and post-therapy scores offers a measure of ‘outcome’ (i.e. whether or not the client’s level of distress has changed, and by how much).

For further information on CORE, including downloadable CORE forms, see the CORE-OM website.

How you and I can use CORE together.

CORE is an optional part of my counselling procedures – you do not have to participate if you do not wish to.  We can use CORE as part of our “tool-kit” to complement not only my training and experience, but also your own opinion of yourself, your life and your experiences of the counselling process. CORE is not a tool for a complete diagnosis. Rather, you might think of it a little like a room-thermometer – which might indicate if the room could benefit from the central heating being turned on … but, in reality, it’s the people within the room who will decide if they require more warmth.

The CORE survey takes about five minutes to complete, and is done in the counselling room.  When completed, I summarise the most important details and discuss with you what the survey reveals to us.  This can often be a useful source of topics to discuss in counselling.

Near to the end of our counselling work, another survey allows us to compare how you were then … with how you are now, and what has changed for you.  Of course, simply feeling better, recognising that your problems are much better and being able to get on with life is sufficient evidence for counselling, but having the CORE data can be useful too to compare levels of distress.

What CORE demonstrates about Counselling.

By using CORE, a client and I are able to demonstrate statistically that the counselling process is able to improve a person’s psychological well-being, symptoms, life-functioning and states of harm or risk.

For practitioners to assess meaningful improvement over the course of therapy, two measures are essential: reliable change and clinically significant change.

• Reliable change is change that exceeds that which might be expected by chance alone or measurement error, it is represented by a change of 5 or more in the clinical score.
• Clinically significant change is indicated when a client’s CORE score moves from the clinical to the non-clinical population (eg a CORE score of around 10 or below).

This page will be updated periodically with further anonymised statistics as they become available.

Related Reading:

Breaking the silence: Lesbian clients speak out about their experiences of counselling and therapy

C++ FAQs (Second Edition)

Guidelines for Counselling About HIV Infection and Disease (WHO AIDS series)

Entering Inner Images: A Creative Use of Constellations in Individual Therapy, Counselling, Groups

Feminist Perspectives in Therapy: Empowering Diverse Women (Wiley series in psychotherapy & counselling)

Individual and Group Counselling in the Schools (Guilford School Practitioner)