The book is written for research methods courses in counseling and covers research concepts that are valuable to practitioners. It emphasizes the importance of being a good consumer of research and teaches the practitioner how to conduct research in practice. It includes many examples from the literature.

Updates to the Second Edition include:

more on qualitative research;

a new chapter on statistical methods;

a chapter on evidence based practice;

new articles to draw on for examples;

ACA ethical guidelines and

expanded coverage on program evaluation;

more on mixed methods.