Deliberate Practice in Behavioral Parent Training

Deliberate practice exercises provide trainees and students an opportunity to build competence in essential behavioral parent training 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. Trainees will learn how to collaborate with parents to build a positive parent-child relationship as a foundation for creating behavioral change, using parenting skills like labeled praise, planned ignoring, and creating clear instructions. Guidelines for working with difficult children, including those with behavioral disorders like ADHD, are provided.

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.

Series Preface
Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz

Acknowledgments

Part I. Overview and Instructions

• Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview of Deliberate Practice and Behavioral Parent Training
• Chapter 2. Instructions for the Behavioral Parent Training Deliberate Practice Exercises

Part II. Deliberate Practice Exercises for Behavioral Parent Training Skills

Exercises for Beginner Behavioral Parent Training Skills

• Exercise 1
• Exercise 2
• Exercise 3
• Exercise 4

Exercises for Intermediate Behavioral Parent Training Skills

• Exercise 5
• Exercise 6
• Exercise 7
• Exercise 8

Exercises for Advanced Behavioral Parent Training Skills

• Exercise 9
• Exercise 10
• Exercise 11
• Exercise 12

Comprehensive Exercises

• Exercise 13. Annotated Behavioral Parent Training Practice Session Transcript
• Exercise 14. Mock Behavioral Parent Training Sessions

Part III. Strategies for Enhancing the Deliberate Practice Exercises

• Chapter 3. Additional Guidance for Trainers and Trainees: How to Get the Most Out of Deliberate Practice

Appendix A. Difficulty Assessments and Adjustments

Appendix B. Deliberate Practice Diary Form

Appendix C. Sample Behavioral Parent Training Syllabus With Embedded Deliberate Practice Exercises

References

Index

About the Authors

Mark Terjesen, PhD, is professor of psychology at St. John's University and a core member of the school psychology programs, previously serving as director. He was the Child and Family Service Coordinator for the Albert Ellis Institute for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in Manhattan and was President of the School Division of the New York State Psychological Association and of APA’s Division 52 (International Psychology). Dr. Terjesen has studied and published on diverse topics, including rational emotive behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, the assessment and treatment of ADHD and anger in children, school psychology, and international psychology.

Hilary Vidair, PhD, is program director and associate professor in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Long Island University Post. She is Director of LIU Post's Family Check-In Program, a low-cost, three-session service for parents of 2–8-year-olds. She served as guest editor of the “Anxiety Disorders” issue of Child and Adolescent Clinics of North America. Dr. Vidair received several awards, including the NIH Clinical Research Loan Repayment Award and the NIMH Child Intervention, Prevention, and Services Research Fellowship. She is actively involved in the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and maintains a private practice in Great Neck, Long Island.

Phyllis Ohr, PhD, is the assistant clinical director of the PhD program in clinical psychology at Hofstra University. Her research interests include cognitive and behavioral factors associated with stressful family interactions, assessment and treatment of early childhood emotion regulation difficulties, and parent-child interaction therapy to reduce parental psychopathology during play interactions. She has contributed to five publications and over 30 presentations.

Olivia Walsh, MS, is a doctoral student at St. John's University.

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 “Psychotherapy Expert Talks,” 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 2017, Dr. Rousmaniere 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 is president of Division 29 of APA.