Counselling psychologists have a distinctive role to play in refuting unjust and inaccurate criticisms, in documenting the fundamentally psychological quality of the help that practitioners have to offer (ELTON WILSON), and in evaluating outcomes and processes through well-documented evidence (COWIE & SALM). In a useful overview of psychotherapy research, BARKHAM describes three overlapping “generations” of psychological research in the field, looking in turn at outcome research, at the impact of therapist orientation, and at the nature of the therapeutic relationship.