Responding to resistance: deliberate practice vs. a traditional workshop

The study: A randomized trial with 88 community psychotherapists. The same presenter delivered both workshops on ambivalence and resistance. The deliberate practice workshop used repeated re-creations of client resistance with consistent feedback on expert responses; the comparison workshop was more didactic.

What they found: Both groups were equally satisfied and both felt they had improved. On observer-rated performance, the deliberate practice group scored higher on every measure. Skills faded in both groups by four months, but the practice group kept its advantage, was rated as more empathic by interviewees, and reported practicing more.

Why it matters for practice: How we feel about a training is not a good guide to what we learned. Rehearsal with feedback made a measurable difference, and skills still need maintenance after the workshop ends.

Westra, H. A., Norouzian, N., Poulin, L., Coyne, A. E., Constantino, M. J., Hara, K. M., Olson, D. A., & Antony, M. M. (2021). Testing a deliberate practice workshop for developing appropriate responsivity to resistance markers. Psychotherapy, 58(2), 175–185. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000311