| Abstract: | Many clients leave counseling prematurely (i.e., without their counselors' agreement). Understanding premature termination is crucial to the effectiveness and efficiency of the counseling enterprise. The authors review research on client attrition from university counseling centers, explore implications for practice, and offer suggestions for future research. Methodological problems and sparse data on some variables preclude firm conclusions, although there are some promising directions, such as theory-based studies, exploration of cognitive-expectancy factors, and client-counselor interaction research. It is becoming increasingly clear that premature termination is not a unitary phenomenon and that dropouts are a heterogeneous group, suggesting the need for greater conceptual and methodological precision in the study of counseling attrition. |
