A 21st Century Principle-Based Training Approach to Psychotherapy: A Contribution to the Momentum of Transtheoretical Work

Abstract

[Background] Despite the finding that the majority of psychotherapists adopt a rather process-oriented and integrative stance, it is uncommon that psychotherapy trainings are transtheoretical and transdiagnostic. Considering principles of change that cut across different schools of therapy holds promise for developing truly research-informed psychotherapy trainings. Common principles of change may answer the question what should be trained. Another important question is how to train. In current psychotherapy training programs, transfer of theory into practice relies mainly on role-playing exercises and supervised practice, both of which have their limitations. [Aims] A fantasy for the future would be the development, implementation, and evaluation of a complementary 21st century online principle-based and marker-led psychotherapy training: incorporating the concepts of deliberate practice as well as expert training, the huge potential of technologies, and considering the importance of (context) responsiveness. [Conclusion] To illustrate this idea, we present a training that we are currently developing, an online Alliance-Focused Training.

Keywords

• principles of change
• psychotherapy training
• alliance-focused training
• deliberate practice
• markers