A pilot study has found that young people who set and reviewed personal goals during school-based counselling may attend significantly more sessions.

Published in Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, the study1 explored whether introducing and regularly reviewing personal goals during school-based humanistic counselling was practical and acceptable for young people aged 13 to 16 experiencing moderate to severe psychological distress.

Humanistic counselling focuses on helping young people explore their thoughts and feelings in a supportive therapeutic relationship.

Goal setting could improve engagement with school counselling

While there were no significant differences in psychological distress or life functioning between young people who received counselling with or without structured goal setting, those who took part in the goal-setting approach missed significantly fewer counselling sessions.

Charlie Duncan, Senior Research Fellow at BACP and lead author of the study, said:

"School counselling provides an important opportunity for young people to access support in a familiar and accessible environment. Our findings suggest that incorporating goal setting into counselling may help young people stay engaged with counselling, although further research is needed to understand whether this also leads to improved mental health outcomes.

"As this was a pilot study, we can't draw definitive conclusions about effectiveness. However, the results show that this approach is both feasible and acceptable, providing a strong foundation for a larger trial to explore how goal setting could enhance school-based counselling."

School counselling supports young people's mental health

Jennifer Smith, BACP Parliamentary and Public Affairs Officer said:

"We know that school counselling can make a real difference by providing young people with a safe, supportive space to explore the challenges they're facing.

“This study offers valuable insight into how simple changes, such as introducing goal setting, could help more young people stay engaged with counselling.

“We hope these findings will inform future research and strengthen the case for school counselling as part of early mental health support for children and young people."

References

1. The study, ‘The effectiveness of goal setting and monitoring in school-based humanistic counselling with young people: Pilot cluster randomised controlled trial’, is published as an open access article in Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.

The authors are Charlie Duncan (University of Roehampton and BACP), David Saxon (University of Sheffield), Jacqueline Hayes (Independent Practitioner-Researcher) and Mick Cooper (University of Roehampton).