Evaluative Feedback – Can You Handle the Truth?

No matter what your professional roles are, evaluative feedback is a two way street. You are either giving the feedback or receiving it.

The success of the venture has everything to do with how we give feedback and how we respond to the information received.

Each month I seek and receive written evaluative feedback about the live training events I offer.

I know that there is valuable feedback on these forms, yet at the end of the workshop I take only a cursory glance. It is typically days or even weeks before I read them.

When I do take a closer look, I learn all kinds of helpful things like:

  • what topics people are interested in;
  • whether or not there was enough lighting or comfortable seating;
  • whether or not people found value in the information presented.

In my role as clinical supervisor, I give feedback to supervisees about their counseling skills. This feedback is mostly verbal and occasionally written. I also get feedback from them about their experience in supervision at the end of our work together.

But there are few areas of my practice where I have not sought feedback. One of those is my counseling services. Seeking client feedback is fairly common in certain settings and there is a compelling movement afoot to bring it into private practice.

There is a lot of informative work being done by Scott Miller, PhD in the area of getting regular feedback from counseling clients at the end of each session regarding the working alliance. He co-created a tool called the “session rating scale.”

It holds therapists accountable for effective practice and paying attention to the client’s agenda and needs. It asks four questions and the response is on a scale with no numbers (visible to the client), regarding the following:

  1. Relationship – Did I feel heard, understood, respected?
  2. Goals & Topics – Did we work on and talk about what I wanted to work on and talk about?
  3. Approach or Method – Is the therapist’s approach a fit for me (or is it not a fit for me)?
  4. Overall – Was there was something missing in the session or was today’s session right for me?

I plan to look for other resources, however I like the simplicity of Miller’s approach. The SRS is something I am considering giving clients toward the end of each session.

This is considerably different from the anonymous feedback that I receive from workshop attendees. There is a much higher level of vulnerability on both sides.

  • Will clients share how they really feel?
  • How will I feel about what they share?
  • Will I respond effectively to their needs?

I know from my supervisees reactions to receiving feedback about their counseling skills that getting direct feedback can be nerve racking but it generally gets easier after the first experience.

Primarily because giving evaluative feedback is a form of criticism. However, this criticism needs to be couched in respect with attention being given to what is going well. I’m intentional about this as a supervisor because it is a part of my skill set.

But getting feedback from counseling clients is not about their training in providing effective feedback. It is about giving them – and myself – the opportunity to make something that is not concrete more accessible and knowable. It is about getting their input about how things are going in a manner that can be tracked over time.

Handling that feedback on my end would be about respecting that the feedback is valid…and acting upon that feedback by making adjustments in my counseling approach.

Are you using evaluation in your work? If so, how has it effected your outcomes?

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