Counselors and psychotherapists have a moral obligation and some practical reasons to make demonstrable the effects of their treatments. The followup study is a commonly used method whose use is nevertheless unsystematized. This paper describes a followup study in which the author contacted by telephone and interviewed 11 former clients. He analyzed the results and used them in combination with a review of the literature, to generate ideas about the utility and accuracy of followup studies in general. He stresses the need for repeated, accurate measurements. He warns against the use of generalist treatments on uniform clients, and proposes instead a more basic approach that illumines the treatment process more clearly. (Author/BP)