Clinical Training Program

Training Commitments

• Minimum of one year

• Minimum of 15 hours per week, including:

  • One hour of clinical training

  • One hour of individual supervision

  • One hour of triadic supervision

  • One hour of Deliberate Practice homework

• Minimum caseload of 11 clients per week after an initial ramp-up period

Training Requirements

• Appropriateness for telehealth, including:

  • Private physical space

  • Reliable internet service

  • Secure technology

• Training program is open to trainees (MFT, MHC, SW) and volunteer associates (LMFTA, MHCA, AACSW, AICSW)

  • Trainees must have good standing in a master’s-level graduate program or higher

  • Trainees must be enrolled in a practicum class by the training program start date

  • Associates must be registered and in good standing with the DOH

 Training Approach FAQs

Deliberate Practice (DP) is arguably the most evidence-based method we know of to improve performance in an effective and reliable manner. The principles of DP systematically target an experiential and procedural type of learning that defines top performers. In fact, decades of research have demonstrated that lengthy engagement in DP is associated with expert performance across a variety of professions. What sets DP apart from other training methods is a rigorous sequence of ongoing performance assessment, tailored goal-setting, and systematic skill-building informed by expert feedback. 

Deliberate Practice is not a substitute for high-quality psychotherapy training, supervision, and other investments such as the therapist’s own therapy or a commitment to self-care. DP is best seen as complementary to all of these. It is, in our opinion, a necessary complement to maximize professional development and clinical expertise. While more traditional training and supervision methods help us to effectively learn models and theory, the principles of DP help us consolidate key learnings from declarative knowledge to a more experiential or procedural level. This is important because many trainings today help trainees to reliably talk or write better about therapy, but not to actually perform it better. And when there is a performance component (e.g. use of roleplays), it is usually unstructured and not tailored to the trainee’s current capacity. 

Rigorous training methods include:

1. Skill Rehearsal - Counselors engage in weekly Deliberate Practice as part of supervision and training. Counselors who wish to engage in recorded Deliberate Practice outside of Sentio Counseling Center are supported by supervisor review and feedback of recordings.

2. Expert Feedback - Counselors show videos of their clinical work to supervisors and peers for feedback. Try to imagine a surgeon, dancer, or any type of athlete learning without observation and feedback, but instead by simply talking about what they recalled from their performance. It simply wouldn’t work!

ROM is when therapists track their clients’ self-reported outcome data on a session-by-session basis.  At Sentio, everyone shows their ROM data to their supervisors and peers so we can all learn from each other. ROM is valuable for many reasons, including:

1. Research has shown that tracking outcomes can help you identify clients at risk for clinical deterioration.

2. Tracking outcomes can help you identify your personal clinical strengths and challenges, so you can target these areas with Deliberate Practice.

3. Tracking your outcomes lets you accumulate sufficient data to get a big-picture look at your clinical effectiveness.

4. Transparency around outcome data helps create a culture of openness and non-defensiveness about our clinical outcomes.

Studies have shown that client feedback can significantly improve the effectiveness of psychotherapy, including reducing dropout rates and shortening the length of treatment. Clients are the ultimate expert of their own experience in psychotherapy. Thus, client feedback is essential for:

1. Assessing the effectiveness of therapy for each client.

2. Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each counselor.

3. Ensuring that training is improving counselors’ skills and performance.

Psychotherapy is very effective for psychological distress (more so than Ibuprofin is for headaches!), yet research over the last half-century shows that our field is no more effective than it was in the 1970s. We believe that Deliberate Practice can point the way to better training methods, better results, and most importantly, better mental health in our communities.