Deliberate Practice in Emotion-Focused Therapy

This deliberate practice exercises in this concise clinical training manual give trainees an effective method for building competence in the common factors all therapists must master, while also developing skills fundamental to emotion-focused therapy (EFT).

Each exercise consists of role-playing scenarios that reflect problems and concerns commonly encountered by EFT practitioners. They are flexibly designed so trainees at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels benefit from careful supervision and guidance, gain insight without actually being in front of clients, and hone their personal therapeutic style.
 
Each of the first 12 exercises focuses on a single skill, such as responding empathically to clients or building therapist self-awareness. Two comprehensive exercises follow in which trainees integrate these essential skills into a single EFT session. Step-by-step instructions guide participants through the exercises, identify criteria for mastering each skill, and explain how to monitor and adjust difficulty. Guidelines to help trainers and trainees get the most out of training are also provided.

This book is accompanied by a companion website that features downloadable versions of the book's appendixes, including a deliberate practice reaction form, a guide for distinguishing between different types of empathic responses, and a sample syllabus: http://pubs.apa.org/books/supp/deliberate-practice.

Rhonda N. Goldman, PhD, is a professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and president of Emotion-Focused Therapy, Chicago. She also conducts training workshops internationally throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. She has authored or edited multiple books, including Clinical Handbook of Emotion-Focused Therapy (2019), Case Formulation in Emotion-Focused Therapy (2015), and Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy (2008), the latter two having companion videos with the same titles. She received the 2011 Carmi Harari Early Career Award from APA Division 32 (Society of Humanistic Psychology). Dr. Goldman is a founding board member of the International Society for Emotion-Focused Therapy.

Alexandre Vaz, MSc, is a clinician, professor, and psychotherapy researcher at the ISPA-University Institute in Lisbon, Portugal, and cofounder of the Deliberate Practice Institute. He has held multiple committee roles for the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) and the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI), including serving as Editor to The Integrative Therapist newsletter and organizer and host to SPR’s webinar series. Dr. Vaz is also founder and host of Psychotherapy Expert Talks, an acclaimed interview series with distinguished psychotherapists and therapy researchers.

Tony Rousmaniere, PsyD, is a licensed psychologist on the Clinical Faculty at the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in Seattle, where he also maintains a private practice. His research focus is clinical supervision and training for psychotherapists and graduate students. Dr. Rousmaniere’s work has been featured in mainstream press outlets like The Atlantic. In 2018, he won the Early Career Award from the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy and the Outstanding Publication of the Year Award for the Cycle of Excellence from APA Divisions 29 and 17, respectively. 

Series Preface
Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz
Acknowledgments

Part I. Overview and Instructions
Chapter 1. Introduction to and Overview of Deliberate Practice and Emotion-Focused Therapy
Chapter 2. Instructions for the Emotion-Focused Therapy Deliberate Practice Exercises

Part II. Deliberate Practice Exercises for Emotion-Focused Therapy Skills
Exercises for Beginner Emotion-Focused Therapy Skills
Exercise 1. Therapist Self-Awareness
Exercise 2. Empathic Understanding
Exercise 3. Empathic Affirmation and Validation
Exercise 4. Exploratory Questions
Exercises for Intermediate Emotion-Focused Therapy Skills
Exercise 5. Providing Treatment Rationale for Emotion-Focused Therapy
Exercise 6. Empathic Explorations
Exercise 7. Empathic Evocations
Exercise 8. Empathic Conjectures
Exercises for Advanced Emotion-Focused Therapy Skills
Exercise 9. Staying in Contact in the Face of Intense Affect
Exercise 10. Self-Disclosure
Exercise 11. Marker Recognition and Chair Work Task Setup
Exercise 12. Addressing Ruptures and Facilitating Repair
Comprehensive Exercises
Exercise 13. Annotated Emotion-Focused Therapy Practice Session Transcript
Exercise 14. Mock Emotion-Focused Therapy 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. Distinguishing Between Empathic Responses
Appendix C. Sample Emotion-Focused Therapy Syllabus With Embedded Deliberate Practice Exercises
References
Index
About the Authors