Deliberate Practice in Career Counseling

Deliberate practice exercises help trainees achieve competence in essential career counseling skills and apply them in a variety of contexts while honing their own personal style.

These exercises present role-playing scenarios in which two trainees act as a client and a counselor, switching back and forth under the guidance of a supervisor. The counselor improvises appropriate and authentic responses to client statements organized into three difficulty levels--beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

Each of the first 10 exercises focuses on a single skill, which include exploring your client’s skills, values, decision-making styles, and cultural and family influences; setting goals; and providing feedback on career assessments and analyzing their underlying themes. 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 the skills, and explain how to monitor and adjust difficulty. Guidelines to help trainers and trainees get the most out of training are also provided.

Jennifer Taylor, PhD, a professor in educational psychology and training director of clinical mental health counseling at the University of Utah. including Career Counseling, Group Counseling, Ethics, and Core Practicum. Her clinical experience includes individual, couples, family, and group counseling. Her program at an underserved high school was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Taylor’s research focuses on professional competence and development; mentoring; continuous education; and related variables such as stress, self-care, multiculturalism, and social justice. She also teaches a distance learning course on eating disorders for the University of Florida.

Tony Rousmaniere, PsyD, is cofounder and program director of Sentio University. He provides workshops, webinars, and clinical training and supervision around the world. He is the author/coeditor of six books on deliberate practice and psychotherapy training and two book series: The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Books) and Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills (Elsevier). In 2017, he 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 was awarded the Early Career Award by the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy.

Alexandre Vaz, PhD, is cofounder and chief academic officer of Sentio University. He provides deliberate practice workshops and clinical training and supervision around the world. Dr. Vaz is the author/coeditor of four books on deliberate practice and psychotherapy training and two book series: The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Books) and Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills (Elsevier). He has held multiple committee roles for the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). Dr. Vaz is founder and host of ＂Psychotherapy Expert Talks,＂ an acclaimed interview series with distinguished psychotherapists and researchers.