The evaluation of psychosocial counseling is becoming increasingly mandatory. Published evaluation studies do not provide insights into the day-to-day evaluation practice within psychosocial counseling services - its aims, content, and implementation. Goal of the current research is to provide knowledge about these evaluation practices. In an online-survey about psychosocial counseling in German-speaking countries, 339 professional counselors were interviewed. Results show: Central aims of evaluation are goal achievement, external representation, and improvement. Central themes are client satisfaction and client changes. Most-reported methods are self-developed questionnaires and interviews. Differences regarding evaluation practice emerge when comparing institutional counseling with counseling in private practice, which might result from diverging evaluation aims. Implications include increased support of counseling evaluation by experts as well as testing of alternative evaluation methods.

Schlagworte
Evaluation Practice, Psychological Counseling, Evaluation Goals, Evaluation Methods