Training and Education in Professional Psychology, Vol 19(1), Feb 2025, 1-13; doi:10.1037/tep0000493
In the last decade, deliberate practice (DP)—a process of formally and systematically training for performance objectives just beyond an individual’s current ability—has emerged as a promising approach for enhancing therapeutic effectiveness. In view of the paucity of prospective studies, an experimental design with a series of challenging clinical vignettes was developed to test whether DP could improve, as well as generalize therapist ability to manage challenging encounters in therapy. When results from a pilot study showed promise for increasing participants’ skills, a multicenter, unblinded randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the use of DP as a training framework. Seventy-two participants (39 in experimental group, 33 in control group) were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group, with the former receiving ongoing feedback to guide DP and the latter limited to engaging in self-reflection. On average, participants in the DP condition not only improved, but were also able to generalize newly acquired knowledge and skills to novel, challenging clinical scenarios. By contrast, no change was observed among participants in the control condition. A review of the extant literature shows this to be the first study to include all four components of DP in psychotherapy training: (1) individualized learning objectives based on an assessment of the performer’s baseline ability, (2) targeted feedback, (3) successive refinement, and (4) guidance from a coach. Caveats and implications for training are discussed and explored. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)