Frontiers of Psychotherapist Development

At the Bleeding Edge of Development, Reaping Benefit for Our Clients.

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Clinical Supervision / Personalised Learning

You Haven’t Taught Until They Have Learned

I love this phrase from the Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden. “You haven’t taught until they’ve learned.”[1] It’s tempting to focus on what we teach as clinical supervisors. Instead, we need to focus on what therapists are learning. 

To do this, supervisors have to hold the paradox of two worlds, that of 

  1. performance and 
  2. development. 

An over-emphasis on performance can impede deep learning and negate performance, and an over-focused on the “self of the therapist” without an eye on performance i.e, client outcome can be turn into a navel-gazing exercise. 

In other words, supervisors have to create safe spaces for growth, not competence.

Further, given that supervisors are two steps removed from the clinical work, supervisors need to keep an eye that their combined efforts should translate into client improvement.

Researcher Edward Watkins raises an important question,

If we cannot show that supervision affects patient outcome, then how can we continue to justify supervision?[2]

Here’s more from Coach Wooden:

On mastering the craft:

…You win by becoming a better player of the game at large, not by adapting your technique to every new team you face. Your opponent will always be changing; it’s a losing race. But if you master the game, you will have skills and knowledge you need to defeat whoever you face.[3]

On Dignity (taught by his father, Joshua Wooden): 

No one is better than you and you are not better than anyone else.

On Directionality:

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over.

Perhaps supervisors can embrace Coach Wooden’s maxim by rephrasing it to “You haven’t taught until you have learned.” 

p/s: Today is the last day (17th of Jan 2020) to LEARN DEEPLY in the Reigniting Clinical Supervision (RCS) web-based workshop. It’s personalised learning, at your own pace, with guidance and a community. It’s not a yearly- subscription. It’s a lifetime access. We hope to see you there.

Footnotes:
[1] Nater, S., & Gallimore, R. (2010). You haven’t taught until they have learned: John Wooden’s teaching principles and practices. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

[2] p. 238 of Watkins, C. E. (2011). Does Psychotherapy Supervision Contribute to Patient Outcomes? Considering Thirty Years of Research. The Clinical Supervisor, 30(2), 235-256. doi:10.1080/07325223.2011.619417

[3] John Wooden, A Game Plan for Life, 2009, p.41

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Personalised Learning / Reimagining Education in Psychotherapy (REP)

Teach the 3 Types of Knowledge and Not Just 1

I propose that in order for us to reimagine education in psychotherapy (REP), these 3 types of knowledge—content, process, and conditional—can serve as a primary conceptual framework.
Competence in content knowledge can create a false confidence of ability. Meanwhile, analogous to a good music not necessarily needing music theory to make good music, it also begs the question if content knowledge needs to serve as a basis for process and conditional knowledge. Perhaps if schools treat these 3 domains ecologically, and not hierarchical; learners might experience the critical interplay early in their higher education.

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Personalised Learning / Reimagining Education in Psychotherapy (REP)

Kindling the Flame

There are two different ways to think about how we educate psychotherapists. The first is a banking model. Traditionally, in a banking model, we teach the theory, research, fill it in the learner’s minds, attempting to download and fill the learner’s mind with knowledge, and about 4 years later, we then send them off for practicum and begin the real work.

The second way is a kindling model. In this approach, we flip the banking model on its head, and start with the action, igniting a deep interest while continuously fanning the flame, and then learn to synthesise, join the dots and form new conscious knowledge—after the fact.

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Deliberate Practice / First Sessions / Personalised Learning

4 Lessons from 20 Weeks of Very Bad Therapy

Ben and Carrie got me on their show for one of their episodes. (Listen to Episode 11, regarding the problem with an intake model. More about this in the book, The First Kiss). What they are doing is so underrated. I asked them in passing, “Wouldn’t it be super interesting to hear what you both learned after doing the first 20 episodes, so that we can learn too?”

I was surprised that they took up the invitation.

This is a guest post by Ben Fineman and Caroline Wiita.