Fighting the Mental Health Pandemic with Feedback Informed Therapy and Deliberate Practice
November 14th, 2021
By Libby Waite.
We are facing a new pandemic. This pandemic is difficult to spot, hard to diagnose, and harder to treat. If you are a mental health practitioner or social worker, then you know this. You are on the front line of this new pandemic. You are holding the wave of collective trauma, grief, and depression that is sweeping the world in the wake of Covid.
Whilst the mental health pandemic that we are all dealing with is overwhelming, it can also be a moment to pause and reflect. If you are a therapist, a counselor, or a social worker, then this is a good time to ask yourself: why do you do this work?
Time To Reflect: How Can You Best Serve Your Clients
In times of great desperation like this, it can seem easy to cling to things we know. But actually, it’s a wonderful opportunity to bring in new practices. Effective healing means responding to people’s unique needs, insights, and emotions. Feedback Informed Therapy, developed by Scott D. Miller, can help you to meet your clients where they’re at.
Feedback Informed Therapy: Centering Clients’ Needs
Feedback Informed Therapy places clients at the center of the therapeutic journey. It allows them to feedback on the progress of their treatment at the start of every session. Sometimes this will mean understanding what’s working, sometimes it will help to determine what’s not. It also empowers clients by making them feel understood and heard. Studies have shown that clients are more likely to stay in therapy when they’re engaged in their treatment. They show a 50% reduction in deterioration rates. And, 25% improvement in outcomes following treatment. Feedback Informed Therapy provides you with a reliable assessment of your clinical practice. It will enable you to better understand how to serve your clients and also refine your own methods.
Defining and Refining: Deliberate Practices for Growth
Data from Feedback Informed Treatment can help define areas for growth through Deliberate Practice. This specialized method pushes people to higher levels of personal capacity, capability and achievement. Deliberate Practice works by establishing clear goals, providing ongoing feedback, and nurturing improvement through repetition. Practitioners who adopt both Feedback Informed Treatment and Deliberate Practice find that their clients improve up to 10 times faster.
How to Handle the Mental Health Pandemic: ‘Whatever Works’
As we find ways to deal with the mental health pandemic, we must remain curious. Scott D. Miller emphasizes the importance of utilizing ‘whatever works’, as long as it’s ethical and meaningful. This is more important than sticking to any particular training or therapeutic process that restricts what is needed in the moment. Your clients have distinct needs, and you have distinct means to meet them. Utilizing ‘whatever works’ enables you to stay in relationship with your client, every session. The more tools you have at your disposal, the easier it will be to slip in line with their needs. Feedback Informed Therapy and Deliberate Practice are two great tools to help you do just this. Finding different ways to work with your clients and facilitate healing is essential. This is how, together, we can heal the mental health pandemic.
References:
Miller, S.D., Hubble, M.A., & Chow, D. (2020). Better Results: Using Deliberate Practice to Improve Therapeutic Effectiveness. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Miller, S.D., Duncan, B.L., Brown, G.S., Sorrell, R., & Chalk, M.B. (2006). “Using formal client feedback to improve retention and outcome: Making ongoing, real-time assessment feasible”. Journal of Brief Therapy. 5 (1): 5–22.
About the author
Libby Waite is a research psychologist specializing in the intersection of Western Psychotherapy and Eastern Spirituality. She is a bodyworker and yoga therapist who combines Body-Mind Centering, Somatics, and Jungian psychology. Her work has been published in the International Journal of Jungian Studies.
