Tools of the Trade: Soft ware for Counselors
Just as Christian clinicians take care to monitor ideas brought into the counseling room, the same discernment is necessary with the tools we use. Consider the biblical principle on the use of honest scales and balances found three times in the book of Proverbs (11:1; 16:11; 20:10), with its roots in the law (Lev. 19:35-36).
In the marketplace, when buying food or fabric, the transaction was based upon an established price per standard measure. God warned his
people not to follow the deceptive, but at times culturally acceptable, practice of using standards or scales known to be off in a given direction. This would create the illusion of honesty, when the entire procedure was only a sham for stealing and leaving the victim unaware. Buying and selling in Gods economy was to be an honest exchange, not a charade to take advantage of someone else. Based on this principle, when Christian counselors appeal to an objective or scientific measure, it is our responsibility to make certain that we understand its limits and the appropriate applications. Only when clinicians are ready to make a fair use of balanced tools can we use these methods without manipulation and with integrity to serve our clients in the name of the Lord. Therefore, clinical measures with potential for identifying psychopathology such as the Minnesota Multiphase Personality
Inventories or the Million Clinical Inventories may find their way into use depending on the setting, purpose, and training of the counselor.7 These can be easily administered and scored using fast mail-in services or through computer-assisted options. One tool, which I believe is undervalued in Christian practice and may add depth of insight into personality patterns, is the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). It is available in several forms, has an extensive research base, and was nor med on a non-clinical population, which is particularly attractive for many settings.
The fifth edition 16PF has eliminated the complex scale labels found on earlier versions, and I would describe it as a counselee friendly measure. The computer generated couples counseling report for the 16PF is worth a look by those who do marriage counseling. When a counselor determines that using a rating form or personality measure would add information useful for treatment planning and service delivery, the next step is to evaluate how frequently these measures will be put to use. The occasional user may benefit from using mail-in answer sheets, while the regular user may want to take on the expense of setting up a computer on-site for administration and scoring. Some software programs may be purchased that provide unlimited use of a measure, but most testing options have a per-use fee. The per-use option is usually less expensive for the occasional user. In most office applications, it is best to designate a separate computer for test administration. Having clients work on the same computer that contains clinical records can be done in a way that protects confidentiality, but such a procedure may not communicate such boundaries. There is another set of tools available in hard copy or interactive software that may add depth to the treatment planning process.
There are now at least a dozen treatment planning guides published by John Wiley & Sons that offer extensive information on treatment plan design for specific presenting problems. A few sample topics are: couples therapy, chemical dependence, group therapy, pastoral counseling, and family therapy. If you simply want a sourcebook to assist in the wording of presenting problems and selecting appropriate treatment goals, look at the guidebook that applies to your area of interest. Each of these planners is also available as a software add-on module to the core treatment planning program called The ascribe. The program objective is to assist clinicians in developing comprehensive treatment plans in printed form for outside accountability. In my review of this software in the summer of 1998, I found that after practice and orientation, it did add diversity, creativity, and precision to my treatment plans. However, I did not find the software to be a real time saver for a clinician already experienced in writing treatment plans. In addition, the software required establishing another database of clients, and that additional time commitment did not seem productive unless this software was also going to be used as part of the overall practice management system.
There are components that can be linked to The ascribe to turn it into a complete system. The purpose here is not to provide a thorough review, only to indicate how the clinician needs to discern his or her own strengths along with ways of doing practice before adding new procedures into client care. There is terrific information in these treatment planning guides, both in the hard copy and software that would take years