Deliberate Practice in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: (Essentials of Deliberate Practice Series)

Deliberate practice exercises provide trainees and students an opportunity to build competence in essential emotionally focused couple therapy (EFCT) skills while developing their own personal therapeutic style.   These exercises present role-playing scenarios in which two trainees act as a client and a clinician, switching back and forth under the guidance of a supervisor. The clinician improvises appropriate and authentic responses to client statements organized into three difficulty levels-beginner, intermediate, and advanced-that reflect common client questions and concerns.   Each of the first 2 exercises focuses on a single skill, such as offering evocative inquiries and reflections, deepening the client amp rsquo s emotional experience of self and other, and choreographing interactions that promote positive emotional engagement. Two comprehensive exercises follow in which trainees integrate these essential skills into a single 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.

Table of Contents:
Series Preface Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz Acknowledgments Part I. Overview and Instructions Chapter . Introduction and Overview of Deliberate Practice and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Chapter 2. Instructions for the Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Deliberate Practice Exercises Part II. Deliberate Practice Exercises for Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Skills Exercises for Beginner Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Skills Exercise . Evocative Inquiry: Identifying Patterns and Eliciting Attachment Fears and Needs Exercise 2. Evocative Reflection: Eliciting and Heightening Emotional Experience Exercise 3. Validating Partners amp rsquo Experiences and Tracking Dysfunctional Patterns Exercise 4. Attachment-Reframed Validation Exercise 5. Deepening Emotions With RISSSSC: Speaking Simply, Slowly, and Softly Exercises for Intermediate Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Skills Exercise . Tracking the Therapist amp rsquo s Inner Experience Exercise 7. Providing a Rationale for Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Exercises for Advanced Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Skills Exercise 8. Gathering and Assembling Elements of Emotion Exercise 9. Enactments: Deepening Emotional Experience and Choreographing Engaged Encounters Exercise . Slicing the Risk Thinner: Helping Partners Express Difficult Emotions Exercise . Interrupting Negative Process Early in Therapy: Catching the Bullet I Exercise 2. Interrupting Negative Process Later in Therapy: Catching the Bullet II Comprehensive Exercises Exercise 3. Annotated Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Practice Session Transcript Exercise 4. Mock Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Sessions Part III. Strategies for Enhancing the Deliberate Practice Exercises  Chapter 3. How to Get the Most Out of Deliberate Practice: Additional Guidance for Trainers and Trainees Appendix A. Difficulty Assessments and Adjustments Appendix B. Deliberate Practice Diary Form Appendix C. Sample Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Syllabus With Embedded Deliberate Practice Exercises References Index About the Authors

About the Author :
Hanna Levenson, PhD, is professor emerita at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. She also maintains a private practice in Oakland where she sees individuals and couples for therapy and professionals for consultation/supervision. Dr. Levenson has specialized in brief dynamic therapy and supervision for over 4 years. She has authored over 85 professional papers and multiple books, including Deliberate Practice in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Deliberate Practice in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, and has released five professional videos with APA illustrating her approaches. Dr. Levenson received the Distinguished Contribution to Psychology as a Profession Award given by the California Psychological Association.   Sam Jinich, PhD, is a certified trainer in emotionally focused couples therapy (EFCT). He specializes in clinical practice with couples from diverse backgrounds. He is founder and director of the San Francisco Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy and cofounder of EFT Academia in Argentina. As a bilingual and bicultural trainer, Dr. Jinich has been responsible for establishing EFCT in Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil, Chile, and Spain through mentoring and supervising practitioners, supervisors, and trainers. He was involved in the first-ever multinational randomized clinical-trial research study in Spanish on the effectiveness of general couples therapy and EFCT.   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 amp ldquo Psychotherapy Expert Talks, amp rdquo an acclaimed interview series with distinguished psychotherapists and researchers. 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 2 7, Dr. Rousmaniere published the widely cited article in The Atlantic Monthly, amp ldquo What Your Therapist Doesn amp rsquo t Know. amp rdquo Dr. Rousmaniere supports the open-data movement and publishes clinical outcome data at drtonyr.com. He is president of Division 29 of APA.

Review :
Emotionally focused couple therapy training needs more goal-directed exercises like the ones provided in this book. The deliberate practice exercises make training more specific and more relevant. We need to get this book in front of trainers and supervisors. - Sue Johnson, EdD, Founding Director, International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy, Ottawa, ON; Distinguished Research Professor, Alliant University, San Diego, CA, United States; and Professor Emeritus, Clinical Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada A highlight in this groundbreaking series, Deliberate Practice in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy is sure to become essential reading for those learning about or active in the practice of this therapy. Brilliantly structured around well-chosen exercises, the reader is helped not only to understand this approach but also with very specific ways on how to build competence with each of its fundamental methods. - Jay Lebow, PhD, Clinical Professor and Senior Scholar, The Family Institute at Northwestern and Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States Deliberate Practice in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy powerfully illustrates and wisely guides a reader through the challenges and opportunities awaiting clinicians seeking to master this time-tested model of relationship change. The authors transform learning into practical confidence and curiosity into clinical competence. - James L. Furrow, PhD, Couples and Family Therapy Program, Seattle University, Seattle, WA, United States The focused specificity of the exercises in this book breaks down the therapeutic process into manageable micro moves and in the process empowers therapists to progress from confusion to competency and confidence. - George Faller, MS, LMFT, EFT Trainer, Founder of New York Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy, New York, NY, United States Whether you are new to the emotionally focused therapy approach to working with distressed dyads or an experienced clinician or mentor, this book is an excellent resource! An evidence-based approach to learning and mastery, this volume offers both a theoretical and scientific overview of the model and a step-by-step approach to not only skill development but also, as the authors aptly describe, the sweet spot for deliberate practice, the balance between procedural and declarative knowledge-art and science, method and map, fluidity and clarity. This book will sharpen the skills of any therapist and is a brilliant companion to anyone teaching the model! - T. Leanne Campbell, PhD, ICEEFT Certified Trainer in EFT; coauthor with Dr. Sue Johnson of "A Primer for Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT): Cultivating Fitness and Growth in Every Client"; and coauthor of "Becoming an Emotionally Focused Therapist: The Workbook"