Getting feedback from clients is known to improve the therapeutic relationship and can help therapists learn more about what is and isn’t working. A study by Campbell & Hemsley (2009) showed that even extremely short check-ins with clients are helpful and valid ways to get feedback on how you are doing as a therapist. There are several ways to get feedback from clients. The most direct way is to ask them outright how they are feeling about the relationship, process, or interventions. Ideally, clients will feel safe enough to share how they feel with you as a therapist. But for clients who do not feel safe critiquing someone in a position of authority or who are simply non confrontational, there are other ways to get feedback that are less direct.
One way is by having clients fill out a brief feedback form. One example is the Session Rating Scale from Duncan, et al. (2003).
The scale aspect of the scale allows clients to be flexible in their responses and place less weight on the number value they give each answer. An assessment like this could work well with clients who are less direct and shy away from giving feedback.
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Campbell, A., & Hemsley, S. (2009). Outcome Rating Scale and Session Rating Scale in psychological practice: Clinical utility of ultra-brief measures. Clinical Psychologist, 13(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/13284200802676391
Duncan, B., Miller, S., Sparks, J., Claud, D.A., Reynolds, L. R., Brown, J., & Johnson, LD. (2003). The Session Rating Scale: Preliminary Psychometric Properties of a “Working” Alliance Measure. Journal of Brief Therapy. 3. 3-12.
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