European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling, June 2006; 8(2): 235–241 Routine evaluation in a psychotherapy service: The use of CORE System data LUIS BOTELLA FPCEE/SAAP Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University Abstract This paper presents a commentary on the contributions to this special edition of the EJCP on using clinical outcomes in routine evaluation. Some of the contributing authors’ main ideas in the papers are compared and contrasted with our own research results after six years of using the CORE System as a routine evaluation protocol. Keywords: Routine evaluation, CORE system, Psychotherapy outcome research, Psychotherapy process research During the year 1999 I was appointed Clinical Director of the newly created psychotherapy service at Ramon Llull University – the SAAP Blanquerna. 1 All through that year, and previously to the actual opening of the SAAP in December, my task was to establish the basis of what the work of the SAAP would be in the future. The main criteria that guided our decisions during that phase derived from our commitment, initiated decades ago, to (a) an integrative view of psychotherapy (see, e.g., Feixas & Botella, 2004), (b) empowering our clients through the promotion of a constructive collaborative alliance with them (see, e.g., Botella, Herrero, Pacheco, & Corbella, 2003), and (c) anchoring our therapeutic interventions in relevant psychotherapy research results as well as contributing to those research results (see, e.g., Corbella & Botella, 2004). A fourth relevant criterion in devising what our procedure would be in the future was accountability, given that psychother- apeutic treatments in the SAAP were partially financed by the Blanquerna Foundation. The first three criteria belong to what Mothersole (in this issue) Correspondence: Luis Botella, FPCEE Blanquerna, Cister 24-34, 08022-Barcelona, Spain. Tel: þ93 253 30 00. Fax: þ93 253 30 31. E-mail: lluisbg@blanquerna.url.es ISSN 1364–2537 print/ISSN 1469–5901 online/06/020235–7 ß 2006 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13642530600714672