Deliberate Practice in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy

Deliberate practice exercises help trainees achieve competence in essential accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy skills and apply them in a variety of contexts while honing their own personal style.
 
These exercises present role-playing scenarios in which two trainees act as a client and a therapist, switching back and forth under the guidance of a supervisor. The therapist improvises appropriate and authentic responses to client statements organized into three difficulty levels—beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
 
Each of the first 12 exercises focuses on a single skill to help clients access core emotions, process past traumas, and build secure attachments. The skills include moment-to-moment tracking, validating and reframing anxieties and defenses, and initiating portrayals (i.e., speaking to an imagined other or self). Two comprehensive exercises follow in which trainees integrate these skills into a single session.
 
Step-by-step instructions guide participants through the exercises, identify criteria for mastering the skills, and explain how to monitor and adjust difficulty. Guidelines to help trainers and trainees get the most out of training are also provided.

To demonstrate how deliberate practiceopens in new window can be fully integrated into a professional curriculum, this series features exercises developed and refined within the clinical training curriculum at the Sentio online marriage and family therapy (MFT) therapist training programopens in new window in California, which is where we started developing this series. These exercises, which have been tested at clinical training sites around the world, are used to enhance clinical outcomes within the first hybrid MFT program approved by the California Board of Behavioral Sciencesopens in new window (BBS) to fully integrate deliberate practice into its entire curriculum. By integrating these models into its hybrid MFT program in California, Sentio University demonstrates that therapist training graduate programs can use deliberate practice to bridge the gap between theory and clinical mastery through repetitive, feedback-informed practice to support the development of modern, outcome-focused clinicians.

Series Preface
Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz

Acknowledgments

Part I. Overview and Instructions

• Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview of Deliberate Practice and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy
• Chapter 2. Instructions for the Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Deliberate Practice Exercises

Part II. Deliberate Practice Exercises for Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Skills

Exercises for Beginner Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Skills

• Exercise 1. Moment-to-Moment Tracking
• Exercise 2. Exploring and Staying with Physical Experience
• Exercise 3. Undoing Aloneness
• Exercise 4. Affirming

Exercises for Intermediate Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Skills

• Exercise 5. Self-Involving Self-Disclosure
• Exercise 6. Self-Revealing Self-Disclosure
• Exercise 7. Metaprocessing

Exercises for Advanced Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Skills

• Exercise 8. Working With Anxiety
• Exercise 9. Affirmative Work With Defenses
• Exercise 10. Initiating Portrayals
• Exercise 11. Privileging Transformance Strivings
• Exercise 12. Metatherapeutic Processing

Comprehensive Exercises

• Exercise 13. Annotated Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Practice Session Transcript
• Exercise 14. Mock Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Sessions

Part III. Strategies for Enhancing the Deliberate Practice Exercises

• Chapter 3. How to Get the Most Out of Deliberate Practice: Additional Guidance for Trainers and Trainees

Appendix A. Difficulty Assessments and Adjustments

Appendix B. Deliberate Practice Diary Form

Appendix C. Sample Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Syllabus With Embedded Deliberate Practice Exercises

References

Index

About the Authors

Natasha Prenn, LCSW, is senior faculty at the AEDP Institute. She sees individuals and couples for therapy and clinicians for accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy supervision in addition to teaching, presenting workshops, and writing. She pioneered the AEDP essential skills and advanced skills courses. She is coauthor of Supervision Essentials for Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy. Dr. Prenn is a founding editor of Transformance: The AEDP Journal. She has presented numerous workshops and trainings and written several book chapters and articles focused on the nuts and bolts of what to actually say and do in AEDP sessions.

Hanna Levenson, PhD, is professor emerita at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. She also maintains a private practice in Oakland where she sees individuals and couples for therapy and professionals for consultation/supervision. Dr. Levenson has specialized in brief dynamic therapy and supervision for over 40 years. She has authored over 85 professional papers and multiple books, including Deliberate Practice in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Deliberate Practice in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, and has released five professional videos with APA illustrating her approaches. Dr. Levenson received the Distinguished Contribution to Psychology as a Profession Award given by the California Psychological Association.

Alexandre Vaz, PhD, is chief academic officer of Sentio University marriage and family therapy (MFT) program in Californiaopens in new window. This innovative online/hybrid MFT programopens in new window was the first approved by the California Board of Behavioral Science for MFT licensure to fully integrate deliberate practiceopens in new window into its curriculum to ensure superior clinical outcomes. He is also director of clinical training for the Sentio Counseling Centeropens in new window which is Sentio MFT program’s guaranteed practicumopens in new window site where students provide low-cost online couples therapy in Californiaopens in new window. Dr. Vaz is the author/coeditor of many books on deliberate practice and psychotherapy training.

Tony Rousmaniere, PsyD, is president of Sentio University marriage and family therapy (MFT) program in Californiaopens in new window. He led the development of online/hybrid MFT programopens in new window, which is the first MFT therapist training program approved by the California Board of Behavioral Science for MFT licensure that fully integrates deliberate practiceopens in new window. Dr. Rousmaniere is the author/coeditor of many books on psychotherapy training. He is also the executive director of the Sentio Counseling Centeropens in new window, which is Sentio MFT program’s guaranteed practicumopens in new window site where students provide sliding-scale online therapy in Californiaopens in new window, and past president of the APA’s Division 29.

Deliberate Practice in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy is a major advance in clinical training for trainers and trainees alike that will not only improve your therapeutic practice but deepen your understanding of AEDP theory. Natasha Prenn, Hanna Levenson, and their colleagues seamlessly integrate cutting-edge science with specific engaging, fun exercises that make mastering AEDP skills not only accessible but downright exciting. They are masters at making even the most complex AEDP concepts and strategies simple and learnable, while staying true to the spirit of AEDP.
—Diana Fosha, PhD, Developer of AEDP and Founder and Director of the AEDP Institute; editor of Undoing Aloneness and the Transformation of Suffering Into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0 and coauthor of Tailoring Treatment to Attachment Patterns: Healing Trauma in Relationship

I’ve spent over 20 years honing my AEDP skills alongside Natasha Prenn. She’s a master supervisor and therapist, but most of all, a gifted teacher. Her clear and concise writing allows therapists to learn and practice AEDP techniques while finding their authentic way of working. Deliberate practice is a welcomed and long-overdue addition to the AEDP literature.
—Hilary Jacobs Hendel, LCSW, certified AEDP psychotherapist, and author of It’s Not Always Depression and Parents Have Feelings, Too

This book is part of the Essentials of Deliberate Practice series by Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz. The materials on this page include a Deliberate Practice Reaction Form and a Deliberate Practice Diary Form that can be used with every book in this series, as well as volume-specific content.

These documents are offered for your personal use in clinical training or teaching courses. If you reprint or adapt them for publication, permission is required from the publisher.

Deliberate Practice Reaction Form

The Deliberate Practice Reaction Form can be used with any of the deliberate practice exercises throughout the series to measure how challenging it was for the trainees and to adjust the difficulty as needed. Appendix A includes a black-and-white version of the form with instructions for assessing and modifying an exercise’s difficulty. A color version of the Deliberate Practice Reaction Form is also available for individual download.

• Appendix A: Difficulty Assessments and Adjustments (PDF)opens in new window
• Deliberate Practice Reaction Form (PDF)opens in new window

Deliberate Practice Diary Form

The Deliberate Practice Diary Form is an optional form that trainees can complete during a training session’s final evaluation or between sessions to process their experiences with the activity, including what was and was not helpful and what they learned. Appendix B, which is the same across all books in the series, presents this form.

• Appendix B: Deliberate Practice Diary Form (PDF)opens in new window

Volume-specific materials

The following content is unique to Deliberate Practice in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy and includes a sample syllabus that integrates the deliberate practice exercises into a standard clinical course.

• Appendix C: Sample Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Syllabus With Embedded Deliberate Practice Exercises (PDFopens in new window | Wordopens in new window)

Video demonstration

A YouTube series (Practice Time! with Amy DeSmidt and Jamie Manseropens in new window) highlights authentic deliberate practice sessions featuring exercises from this book and other volumes in the Essentials of Deliberate Practice series.

Supplemental resources for therapist training

Designed for faculty at graduate institutions, these supplemental resources provide a framework and clear examples for implementing deliberate practice within existing therapist training curricula. Sentio University is where we started to develop what would become the APA Essentials of Deliberate Practice series. We provide a comprehensive suite of free psychotherapy training resources based on the deliberate practice methodologyopens in new window. These materials are designed to supplement modern hybrid and online therapist training curricula and are used extensively within our own clinical programs.

• California MFT program integration: These materials are a core component of the Sentio hybrid MFT program in Californiaopens in new window, the first in the state to fully integrate DP into its entire curriculum and receive California Board of Behavioral Sciences approval for licensure.
• Free deliberate practice exercises: Access our library of therapist skill-building worksheetsopens in new window used to enhance the online California MFT degree through repetitive, feedback-informed practice.
• Deliberate practice video demonstrations: Visit our YouTube channel for free therapist training videosopens in new window to view clinical demonstrations from the APA Essentials of Deliberate Practice book series. These videos illustrate key skills used to enhance the online California MFT degree through repetitive, feedback-informed practice.
• AI and emerging therapy resources: Learn how deliberate practice can be used to safely and ethically integrate AI for therapist trainingopens in new window. Review our AI research programopens in new window and our clinical guidelines on using AIopens in new window to prepare for the modern landscape of digital mental health.