Summary

This second edition of Mastering the Inner Skills of Psychotherapy presents deliberate practice exercises that help professionals and trainees develop the resilience and flexibility they need to be good therapists.

Clients often arouse strong emotional reactions in therapists. Sometimes this is termed experiential avoidance or countertransference. Therapists must work hard to build their psychological capacity to stay self-aware, attuned, and clinically flexible even as they experience strong responses to their clients' words and actions.

This book provides clear and practical deliberate practice exercises to help readers identify, develop, and master the inner skills necessary to be effective therapists. It features a clear and concise training plan that is based on the principles of deliberate practice. The plan can be adapted for use with all major models of psychotherapy, and it can serve as a lifeline for psychotherapists at all levels of experience, from trainees to seasoned professionals.

Author Biography

Tony Rousmaniere, PsyD, is program director of the Sentio Marriage and Family Therapy graduate program, and executive director of the Sentio Counseling Center. He has authored many books on deliberate practice and psychotherapy training and is coeditor of the book series The Essentials of Deliberate Practice(APA Books). In 2017, Dr. Rousmaniere published the widely cited article in The Atlantic Monthly, “What Your Therapist Doesn’t Know.” Dr. Rousmaniere supports the open-data movement and publishes clinical outcome data at drtonyr.com. He is president of Division 29 of APA.

Prologue to the 2nd Edition

Forwards

Part I: The Training Plan

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: A Case Example

Chapter 3: Psychological Capacity

Chapter 4: Stimuli for Deliberate Practice

Chapter 5: Principles of Training

Chapter 6: Training Safely

Part II: Deliberate Practice Exercises

Exercise #1: Observe Your Reactions To Psychological Stimuli

Exercise #2: Attention Control

Exercise #3: Simultaneous Self-Observation and Client Engagement

Part III: Advanced Deliberate Practice Exercises

Exercise #4: Psychological Self-Recovery

Exercise #5: Interval Training

Exercise #6: Customize Your Deliberate Practice

Part IV: Training Strategy

Chapter 7: Track Your Progress

Chapter 8: Common Challenges and Solutions

Chapter 9: Personal Development for Therapists

Chapter 10: Looking Forward

Part V: Resources

Appendix A: Deliberate Practice Exercise Form

Appendix B: Customizing DP Exercises Form

Appendix C: Sample Videos

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.