Counselor-client agreement on session impact.

We propose a new framework for understanding studies of counselor–client agreement about their counseling. The framework includes five factors: the scope of counseling being studied (process, impact, or outcome), the dimension (index) being rated (in this study, session Depth, Smoothness, Positivity, or Arousal), the measure used to assess agreement (correlations or absolute differences), the level at which the analysis is conducted (session, client, or counselor), and the type of agreement—(a) consensus, the similarity of counselors' own ratings to clients' own ratings; (b) counselor awareness, the similarity of counselors' perceptions of their clients to clients' own ratings; (c) client awareness, the similarity of counselors' own ratings to clients' perceptions of their counselors; and (d) matched awareness, the similarity of counselors' perceptions of their clients to clients' perceptions of their counselors. In a study of session impact (scope), degree of agreement was found to vary substantially with each of the other factors—type of agreement, dimension rated, measure of agreement, and level of analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)