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Competency or skillfulness refers to the quality of the therapist's interventions. Competency evaluations, although difficult to make, are useful in the training of psychotherapists. Several competency scales are reviewed, and most of these raise significant concerns about interrater reliability and predictive validity. It is argued that competency is best considered a state-like variable, with therapists demonstrating higher competence when they skillfully treat patients across a range of difficulty levels. Competency scales may facilitate the development of a generally accepted standard within a specific psychotherapeutic modality. For competency measures to gain practical acceptance, supervisors must accept their value for documenting replicable qualitative observations of therapists' behavior both within and across cases. The development of standards of psychotherapy practice awaits further scale development and …