Deliberate practice exercises allow students and trainees to rehearse systemic family therapy (SFT) skills to develop basic competence and hone their own personal therapeutic style.
In these exercises, two or more trainees role-play couples or family therapy sessions with one trainee acting as the therapist and the others acting as clients, rotating through these roles under a supervisor’s guidance. The trainee playing the therapist improvises appropriate and authentic responses to client statements organized into three difficulty levels—beginner, intermediate, and advanced—that reflect common problems and concerns encountered by SFT practitioners.
The first 12 exercises each focus on a single skill, such as building a therapeutic alliance, deescalating conflicts, establishing rules and boundaries, and addressing diversity issues. These are followed by two comprehensive exercises—an annotated transcript and free-form mock therapy sessions—in which trainees integrate these essential skills into a single SFT 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.
Author Biography:
Adrian Blow, PhD, is a Professor and Chair in the Human Development and Family Studies department and a core faculty in the Couple and Family Therapy Program at Michigan State University (MSU). His research focuses on families and trauma, military families, and change processes in systemic family therapy. Dr. Blow was coassociate editor of The Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy, Volume 3, which focuses on clinical work with couples. In 2017, he was awarded the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) Training Award. He was also the AAMFT Board Secretary (2012–2014) and Board Treasurer (2016–2019).
Ryan Seedall, LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and associate professor at Utah State University (USU) in the department of Human Development and Family Studies. He is the associate director in the marriage and family therapy program at USU. Dr. Seedall has published close to 40 peer-reviewed articles and seven book chapters on topics related to understanding and improving relationship processes (couple and therapeutic) as well as enhancing prevention and intervention efforts. He was also coassociate editor of The Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy, Volume 1, which focuses on the profession of systemic family therapy.
Debra Miller, PhD, LMSW, is a licensed social worker and clinical researcher on the faculty of Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI, where she serves as the director of the University’s couple and family therapy clinic training program. Her research is centered on supporting systemic family therapists with skill development, particularly as it relates to learning evidence-based approaches to treatment. Since 2012, she has served on the faculty of the Family Therapy Training Institute of Miami, providing training throughout the United States in the brief strategic family therapy model.
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.
Alexandre Vaz, PhD, is director of training at the Sentio Marriage and Family Therapy graduate program and 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). Dr. Vaz has held multiple committee roles for the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). He is founder and host of “Psychotherapy Expert Talks,” an acclaimed interview series with distinguished psychotherapists and researchers.
