Presented an empathy algorithm, a procedure for deciding whether to use an interchangeable or an additive empathy response and instructions for the construction of each response, to a randomly chosen group of novice counselors (N=23). The experimental group performed significantly better in counseling a role-played client than did controls.…

The brief therapy approach to counseling was born in the post-World War II cybernetics movement. The shift from a problem focus to a solution focus altered the way in which counselors approached helping clients out of their inflexible cognitive representations. Alongside this evolution in psychotherapy were the growth of research in artificial…

Twenty-two junior, senior, and graduate students from an introductory counseling class for nonmajors were introduced to the verbal psychotherapies, and randomly divided into treatment and control groups. The groups were treated identically and received the usual instructional program except for the treatment group receiving 30 minutes of…

"Algorithmic counseling" is an attempt to apply recent instructional regulation techniques to graduate counselor training and research. This paper seeks to explain what algorithms are, why they could be useful, and how they can be constructed. A central motivation for studying algorithms is their utility in showing students how to accomplish a…