The effectiveness of goal setting and monitoring in school‐based humanistic counselling with young people: Pilot cluster randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: To determine the feasibility and acceptability of a cluster RCT comparing school-based humanistic counselling (SBHC) plus a goal-based task (SBHC+G) with SBHC alone. A secondary aim was to establish preliminary indicators of change on measures of psychological distress and life functioning. DESIGN: This was a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial. METHOD: Recruitment and retention of counsellors and young people, as well as measure completion rates and session attendance, were analysed as indicators of acceptability feasibility. ANCOVA tests were used to compare endpoint scores between conditions, controlling for baseline scores, on measures of psychological distress (YP-CORE) and life functioning (ORS). RESULTS: Recruitment, retention and measure completion rates were acceptable. There were no statistically significant differences between conditions on YP-CORE or ORS scores at end point. Those in the SBHC+G condition missed significantly fewer sessions (M = 1.7) than those in the SBHC only condition (M = 3.2, p = .04). CONCLUSION: The trial design was feasible and acceptable and has the potential to be scaled up to a larger, adequately powered study.