Deliberate Practice With Helping Skills

Deliberate practice exercises help psychotherapists develop competence in core helping skills that are applicable to any therapeutic approach.

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.

The first 10 exercises review foundational skills to facilitate exploration, insight, and behavioral change, such as offering empathic reflections and conjectures, asking open-ended questions, validating clients' experiences, deepening their emotional experiencing, identifying maladaptive patterns, exploring potential avenues for change, seeking feedback about therapy, and identifying ruptures and repairs to the therapeutic alliance. Two comprehensive exercises follow in which trainees integrate these skills into a transcribed session and mock therapy sessions.

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 practice can be fully integrated into a professional curriculum, this series features exercises developed and refined within the clinical training curriculum at the Sentio online/hybrid marriage and family therapy (MFT) therapist training program 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 Sciences 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 Helping Skills
• Chapter 2. Instructions for the Helping Skills Deliberate Practice Exercises

Part II. Deliberate Practice Exercises for Helping Skills

Exercises for Beginner Helping Skills

• Exercise 1. Empathic Reflections
• Exercise 2. Empathic Conjectures
• Exercise 3. Open-Ended Questions
• Exercise 4. Validation

Exercises for Intermediate Helping Skills

• Exercise 5. Exploring Client Ambivalence
• Exercise 6. Deepening Emotional Experiencing
• Exercise 7. Exploring Efforts to Avoid, Escape, or Control Emotions
• Exercise 8. Exploring Options for Change

Exercises for Advanced Helping Skills

• Exercise 9. Soliciting Client Feedback
• Exercise 10. Addressing Alliance Ruptures

Comprehensive Exercises

• Exercise 11. Annotated Helping Skills Practice Session Transcript
• Exercise 12. Mock Helping Skills 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 Helping Skills Syllabus With Embedded Deliberate Practice Exercises

References

Index

About the Authors

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.