The Counselling Session Benefits Scale: Reliability, validity and psychometric properties

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Clinical psychology
• Psychotherapy research

Background:

• Assessing client-reported benefits is crucial for evaluating psychotherapy effectiveness.
• Existing measures may not fully capture the multifaceted gains from counseling sessions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Counselling Session Benefits Scale (CSBS), a self-report instrument.
• To assess the psychometric properties of the CSBS in diverse client populations.

Main Methods:

• Expert evaluation and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in Study 1.
• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal consistency, and validity testing in Study 2.
• Measurement invariance testing across demographic and clinical variables.

Main Results:

• The 23-item CSBS demonstrated a five-factor structure: emotional release, cognitive changes, coping skills, confidence, and self-acceptance.
• The scale exhibited acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α) and confirmed factor structure via EFA/CFA.
• CSBS scores positively correlated with working alliance and showed measurement invariance across gender, medication use, psychotherapy experience, and time.

Conclusions:

• The CSBS is a reliable and valid measure for client gains after single counseling sessions.
• The scale is suitable for use in university and clinical settings.
• Further validation in Western countries with representative samples is recommended.