TPC-Journal-V6-Issue1

22 Chad M. Yates is an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University. Courtney M. Holmes, NCC, is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Jane C. Coe Smith is an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University. Tiffany Nielson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Correspondence can be addressed to Chad M. Yates, 921 South 8th Ave, Stop 8120, Pocatello, Idaho, 83201, yatechad@isu.edu . Chad M. Yates, Courtney M. Holmes, Jane C. Coe Smith, Tiffany Nielson The Benefits of Implementing a Feedback Informed Treatment System Within Counselor Education Curriculum Counselor education departments have a unique opportunity to implement feedback informed treatment (FIT) systems that serve as continual assessment procedures by informing counselors, clients, supervisors and educators about client functioning and progress toward goals. These systems hold potential benefits within counselor training such as a positive impact on supervision, student development and student learning outcome evaluation. This article contains an overview of what a FIT system is, reviews of the psychometric properties and steps for administering and scoring three main FIT systems, and a synopsis of the potential benefits and utility of FIT systems within counselor education. Implications for counselor education are discussed. Keywords: feedback informed treatment (FIT), counselor education, supervision, counselor training, student development Implementing continuous feedback loops between clients and counselors has been found to have significant impact on the effectiveness of counseling (Shimokawa, Lambert, & Smart, 2010). Feedback informed treatment (FIT) systems are beneficial to counselors and clients as they provide clinicians with a wide array of client information such as which clients are plateauing in treatment, deteriorating or at risk for dropping out (Lambert, 2010; Lambert, Hansen, & Finch, 2001). Access to this type of information is imperative because counselors have been shown to have poor predictive validity in determining if clients are deteriorating during the counseling process (Hannan et al., 2005). Furthermore, recent efforts by researchers show that FIT systems based inside university counseling centers have beneficial training features that positively impact the professional development of counseling students (Reese, Norsworthy, & Rowlands, 2009; Yates, 2012). To date, however, few resources exist on how to infuse FIT systems into counselor education curriculum and training programs. This article addresses the current lack of information regarding the implementation of a FIT system within counselor education curricula by discussing: (1) an overview and implementation of a FIT system; (2) a comprehensive review of the psychometric properties of three main FIT systems; (3) benefits that the use of FIT systems hold for counselors-in-training; and (4) how the infusion of FIT systems within a counseling curriculum can help assess student learning outcomes. Overview and Implementation of a FIT System FIT systems are continual assessment procedures that include weekly feedback about a client’s current symptomology and perceptions of the therapeutic process in relation to previous counseling The Professional Counselor Volume 6, Issue 1, Pages 22–32 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2015 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi:10.15241/cy.6.1.22