Now, every program believes they give students a chance to practice because they have them work with real clients, during what is even called “practicums”. But seeing clients does not count as practice, at least not according to the huge body of research in the area of skill development.
According to the science, seeing clients would be categorized, not as practice, but as “performance”. In order for something to be considered practice, it needs to be focused on one skill at a time. And when you’re actually seeing a client, you’re having to use a dozen or more skills at once, in real time, without a chance to slow down and focus on one skill long enough to improve upon it.
The research on expertise is clear: performance, where you’re doing the whole thing at once, does not lead to improvement in one’s abilities. That’s why therapists, on average, don’t improve in their outcomes with more years of experience.
The truth is, having the chance to see more clients (gain clinical experience) does not make us better therapists. What does? Something called deliberate practice.
FYI, I couldn’t click into this from the front page, nor could I see anything on it on the front page. I had to go to the permalink (and I assumed at first this was a joke post with no content) to see it.
I couldn’t click into it from the front page if I tried to click on the zone where the text content would normally go, but I was able to click into this from the front page if I clicked on the reply-count icon in the top-right corner. (But that wouldn’t have worked when there were zero replies.)
FYI, I couldn’t click into this from the front page, nor could I see anything on it on the front page. I had to go to the permalink (and I assumed at first this was a joke post with no content) to see it.
I couldn’t click into it from the front page if I tried to click on the zone where the text content would normally go, but I was able to click into this from the front page if I clicked on the reply-count icon in the top-right corner. (But that wouldn’t have worked when there were zero replies.)