Conceptualizing clinical practice evaluation: Historical trends and current issues

Abstract

This article examines how practice evaluation and psychotherapy research have been conceptualized and enacted in social work and closely allied fields over the past 100 years. Four distinct periods are identified, each with a different professional focus, and specific educational and fiscal challenges; Several questions regarding the fit between social work's person‐in‐environment perspective and both past and present approaches to practice evaluation are addressed. A series of issues regarding practice evaluation methodologies are also identified in order to explore how practice evaluation and psychotherapy research are, or are not, useful to the practitioner. A number of challenges facing practice evaluation in the near future are defined.