The impact of a deliberate practice workshop on therapist demand and support behavior with community volunteers and simulators.

In this study, 68 trainees interviewed both an ambivalent community volunteer and an ambivalent simulator 4 month post workshop. The DP group was found to exhibit significantly fewer Demand behaviors than the Traditional group, with the latter also being significantly quicker to use Demand in the interviews. Moreover, the simulator evoked significantly greater Demand from therapists, regardless of the Training group, suggesting the simulators were more resistant. Although therapist use of Support was equal for community volunteers across training groups, Traditional workshop trainees decreased Support when interviewing the more resistant simulators, whereas DP trainees increased their Support with this same group. This is consistent with findings that DP trainees were more appropriately responsive, making fewer Demands following interviewee counterchange talk and using more Support at these times. These results provide some initial validation of the simplified therapist behavior coding system and offer further evidence for the benefits of DP workshop training for managing resistance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research