Practical Approaches to Applied Research and Program Evaluation for Counselors

Practical Approaches to Applied Research and Program Evaluation for Counselors is a comprehensive textbook that presents master’s-level counselors with the skills and knowledge they need to consume literature to inform practice, apply research methods to practice settings, and evaluate the effectiveness of counseling services.

Each chapter, aligned with 2024 Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards, guides readers through study design and evaluation fundamentals that will help them understand existing research and link the characteristics of that evidence to their practice. Readers will also be supported in the development of studies to assess their own applied evaluation questions. Readers will learn the basics of research concepts as applied to evaluative tasks, the art of matching evaluative methods to questions, specific considerations for practice-based evaluative tasks, and practical statistical options matched to practice-based tasks.

Readers can also turn to the book’s support material to access sample course outlines for implementation by instructors of 15-, 10- and 5- week courses, worksheets for practitioner and student planning exercises, spreadsheets with formulas for basic data analysis, a sample database, PowerPoint outlines, and discussion questions and activities aligned to each chapter.

Casey A. Barrio Minton, PhD, NCC, is a Professor of Counselor Education and Department Head of Counseling, Human Development, and Family Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

A. Stephen Lenz, PhD, LPC-S, is a Professor of Counselor Education and Coordinator of Counseling Programs at Texas A&M University – San Antonio.

Both authors are Past-Presidents of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling and Fellows of the American Counseling Association.