Unit testing $scope function which calls named functions that increment $scope vars

I have a $scope function which calls private (named functions) inside of it. Within these named functions I increment a $scope.counter variable. When unit testing this it's going into my functions but is never actually incrementing $scope.counter (in the test, works in the app).

Is it possible to unit test that these are being incremented inside my named functions since they are not actually accessible from a unit test?