Becoming a More Effective Therapist: Deliberate Practice vs Best Practice Supervision vs Supervision as Usual

Bruce E. Wampold, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Counseling Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is using an MRI grant to determine the effectiveness of Deliberate Practice (DP) in the training and supervision of therapists.

There are several strategies for improving the quality of mental health services including disseminating information on evidence-based treatments and monitoring patient progress. However, neither of these strategies recognizes that the most important factor in mental health delivery is the therapist delivering the treatment, regardless of the treatment model being used. Evidence suggests that more effective therapists have a sophisticated set of interpersonal skills that they use in challenging interpersonal interactions. To be an effective therapist trainees must acquire these skills.

Deliberate Practice involves identification of skills to be developed, repetitive and iterative practice with focused feedback from a coach, and gradual improvement. This study investigates whether sophisticated interpersonal skills can be acquired in deliberate practice with the supervisor taking the role of coach.

Dr. Wampold and his team are conducting the study at the Calgary Counseling Center. The study involves 40 therapists in training. Trainees will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: deliberate practice, best practice supervision or supervision as usual.

The hypotheses for this study are two comparisons: 1. DP supervision and best practice supervision will be superior to supervision as usual. 2. DP supervision will be superior to best-practice supervision.

This is a clinical trial, and the primary outcome is the improvement of clients of the trainees.