Circle of Development
Note: The original version of this article first appeared in Psychotherapy.net, June 2019. Today we are going to use the concept of Circle of Development (COD) to elaborate on how clinical supervisors can help...
Tagged: development
How Do You Go Faster on a Bicycle?
Pedal harder. Build you leg muscles and increase your stamina. Wrong. Watch cyclist Michael Guerra tap into the principles of aerodynamics in catching up on the race.
Here’s the Payoff
It all begins with an investment of faith. Organisations, supervisees, and practitioners whom I consult with know that, for the most part, they wouldn’t see immediate results. It’s a calculated gamble. I recently began...
What It Means to Be At The Frontier
When you are at the frontier, you feel alive. Being at the frontier, you experience an interplay between being awakened and a sense of surrender.
Instead of The “10,000” Hour Rule, Why Not The “60” Hour Rule?
By now, many of you would have heard about the 10,000-hour rule, made popular by Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Outlier. This was largely based on K. Anders Ericsson and colleagues seminal work in 1993,...
Which Way to Go?
Join our in-depth, cutting-edge learning platform, Reigniting Clinical Supervision (RCS). Registration closes on 3rd of May 2019. Course begins on 6th of May 2019.. If you are a subscriber to Frontiers of Psychotherapist Development, remember to...
The Personal and The Professional
“The personal cannot be divorced from the professional,” says author Parker Palmer.[1] While we teach methods leading to competencies as a psychotherapist. In order to ignite the work within the walls of “professionalism”, we...
The Future of Our Work Isn’t Robots. It’s Caring Humans.
The future of our work as a caring profession isn’t going to be subjugated or outsourced to artificial intelligence or driverless cars. Instead, our work is going to matter even more in the future...
10 Things to Avoid in Deliberate Practice
“Those who control their passion and make it work for them have presence. Those who fail to control their passion look like excited, nervous teenagers. Those who have no passion at all have no...
Being Average is Compelling
Singer Billy Joel said, “I am, as I’ve said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.” Being a good enough[1] therapist is compelling. Besides, there are real upsides of being...
Repairable Models: It’s Time We Fix This
Try opening up your latest iPhone or Samsung mobile device. It’s near impossible. That’s because tech giants are making phones harder to repair. Apple insists that their iPhones are so complicated that third-party repairers...
First Principles: The 5-Step Process for Deep and Accelerated Learning in Therapy
In a previous post, I’ve talked about the importance of Developing First Principles Before Methods. I’ve also talked about the ways you can develop first principles from challenging situations, therapeutic mistakes, and guidance from...
Three Ways to Develop First Principles in Your Clinical Practice
Try this little thought experiment: Take a piece of paper, and in the next 2-3mins, in no more than 2-3 paragraphs, write down your philosophy of what guides you in therapy. Most of us...
Develop First Principles Before The Methods
As a field, we were obsessed with methods, approaches, tools, theoretical orientations, and schools of thought. Money poured into establishing treatment efficacy differences have not yield much fruit; therapists investment in time, effort and...
Develop Your Own Wealth of Learnings
In a previous post, I talked about the iterative cycle that we can take in our professional development (click HERE to revisit it, and download the free infographic). Here’s something that I’ve recently revisited that struck...
Specific Ways to Build a Portfolio of Mentors
In a previous post, I advocated the need to go beyond seeking the help from one individual. It is up to you to Build a Portfolio of Mentors. It doesn’t happen to you; it’s...
The Iterative Pathway of a Psychotherapist’s Professional Development
There is no doubt, psychotherapists value professional development. After all, we are in the business of human development. We prize growth and change not only in our clients, but in ourselves. But the truth...
Terrible Gifts in Therapy
This is not some Catholic self-flagellating, guilt inducing exercise. Rather, if we see with fresh eyes, every moment of difficulty that we face in a session with you client, presents a gift to you. These...
I Get the Goose Bumps…
I get the goose bumps when I hear the type of questions discerning therapists raise at my workshops. It strikes me every time not only because these are the questions I’ve been pondering about...
What are the Perennial Pillars for Psychotherapists?
For songwriters, the perennial pillar is song craft. It is not technical mastery. A songwriter knows that technical agility at an instrument is not going help him create a better song. It’s easier to...
Do Not Seek Out A Supervisor
Seek out a portfolio of supervisors, mentors and coaches. The apprenticeship model of clinical supervision certainly has its merits. It takes us beyond what we read and what we derive from experience in clinical practice....
Stop Talking, and Start Performing.
What if one of the ways of transforming our practice in psychotherapy is to stop calling it talk therapy, but to see it as a performance ritual? What if we stop talking, and start...
Signs That Therapists are Barking Up the Wrong Tree in Our Professional Development
I’m going to re-look at some deeply held truths we were taught to believe about professional development in the field of psychotherapy. Actually, if these truths are closely examined, they are perpetuated lies.
What Have You Changed Your Mind About?
Do you know someone who seems to know everything? When you share a new idea with this friend or colleague, they give you that “I-knew-it-all-along” kind of nod and smirk? This person is more...
How Do You Get Better At Eliciting Feedback?
In the previous post, we addressed the issue of how to receive feedback. In this post, we take a step back and address how we can elicit feedback.
How Do You Get Better at Receiving Feedback?
“How was your meal sir?” “Fine, thanks.” I lied. Five minutes into the meal, the waitress comes back to me. She’s wondering why I haven’t touched my pasta one bit since she last enquired.
Why We Need This One Person For Us To Get Better
When this guy was in the room, I played better. We first met Randolf Arriola when I was about 17 years old. My bandmates and I saved up enough money to go into a...
The Tension of Opposites: Clinical Intuition vs. Clinical Data (Part 2 of 2, The Rate & Predict Exercise)
In the previous post, I advocated the marriage of our clinical intuition and the use of outcome informed data. Do not let me convince you. Let your experience convince. Put it to the test....
The Pursuit of Excellence is Not the Pursuit of Perfection
The pursuit of getting better at our craft in therapy requires us to make fine distinctions. One of them is to make the distinction between the pursuit of excellence vs. the pursuit of perfection.
Why Our Self-Assessment Might be a Delusion of Reality
Why do therapists with higher self-perception of healing involvement (HI) in their work are more likely to be performing poorer than their peers with low HI self-ratings? We can speculate a few explanations.
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