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Effectiveness of Counselling
In the 1950s and early 1960s Hans Eysenck reviewed date relative to counselling and psychotherapy effectiveness in treating neurotic disorders and claimed that the cure rate of untreated individuals matched that of treated individuals (Eysenck 1966). Even though Eysenck's results are well known, it appears that methodological flaws invalidate his findings. Since Eysenck drew his conclusions, several other authorities have reviewed the outcome literature and concluded that counselling and psychotherapy are indeed effective. In the most comprehensive review, Smith and Glass (1977) found that the average client who received counselling or therapy was better off than 75 percent of those who did not receive psychological help.

There have been attempts to identify which techniques or theoretical approaches are most effective. The results of these attempts are ambiguous. For certain specific disorders (e.g. phobias) behavioural approaches are superior. For the most part, however, there are few differences in the effectiveness among various, techniques and approaches. It has been claimed that differences in effectiveness can best be explained by counsellor and client characteristics and the interaction of the two (Frank 1979).