Category: My Deliberate Practice Journey
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My comfort is just as important as my clients
Towards the end of last year I was watching a segment on tv about the now retired Indian cricketer, Sachin Tandulkar. Sachin is probably India’s most successful ever batsman. He’s the cricketing equivalent of Roger Federer or Cristiano Ronaldo – at least in terms of impact on the sport. I promise, I won’t bore you…
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The opposite of ableism is still ableism
I just want to say before I start, I appreciate what I am about to write is on a sensitive and potentially controversial topic. I welcome any disagreement or discourse, so long as it is respectful. So please feel free to return serve, if you like. A crucial component of ableism, one that doesn’t get…
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I’m an info dumper (and now I’m proud of it)
This is a tale of acceptance. Acceptance of myself. Just when I thought I couldn’t accept myself any more deeply, I discover something that takes it to a whole new level. I have a lot of questions when it comes to neurodivergence, not just for me, but as a concept generally. While we may not…
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Counterbalancing
I’m sure we all know by now that Deliberate Practice, especially when applying it to your foundational skills, isn’t easy. Whether it’s finding the capacity to do it, figuring out what to focus on or learning how to do it effectively. Some of these challenges I have been able to resolve over time, but there…
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If science is nothing but trying – how much should we try?
Before I begin – some short updates Update 1: In case you missed this, I have started a new set of posts called quick missives. They are intended to be quick tips or reflections on Deliberate Practice. I made the decision to create these because I have many blog post ideas and concepts that feel…
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Letting the paint dry
Boy, has it been a big three years for me in this journey. At the beginning I was still only one year into being a registered Psychologist. I was still trying to find my identity beyond the CBT I was trained in. I was desperate to discover the kind of therapist I wanted to be.…
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An analysis: My outcome stats for 2023 compared to previous years
Welcome to the analysis of my outcome statistics. This may be something you have never seen done before, at least in this much detail. I’m not going to go into a big intro on this one, because it was a monster effort just putting this together. With that being said, I am no expert when…
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I Finally Have A Visual For My Deliberate Practice Ecosystem
I believe strongly that in order to demonstrate what Deliberate Practice looks like and how it helps, it’s only fair for me to share my Deliberate Practice process. I know that you won’t be as willing to try Deliberate Practice for yourself if you don’t know what it looks like. Sure, I have been sharing…
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In order to listen better, we have to get it wrong
If you didn’t catch my last post… which was yesterday, I’ve had a recent tectonic shift of a realisation – my three years of Deliberate Practice have boiled down to one thing… just listen better. I kept cracking the atom of how I could become a more effective therapist. First getting feedback from clients, then…
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Are any of us master listeners?
Spoiler alert: I dont believe many therapists are master listeners (if any). It might sound harsh, but DP has taught me that there is no such thing as natural talent or mastery. All masters had to earn it, through very hard work and strong support systems, none of them were born with it. Mastery is…
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Go where a client wants to go, to open them up to where they need to go
All through this year I have tried to be guided by a central principle – aligning myself with what my client wants. Being on the same page for who they want to become as a person (outcome goals), how they want to get there (process goals) while re-acting effectively to their feedback. I have spent…
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Keeping on the same page with Daryl Chow
I’ve done something a little different this time. Instead of making a post for each coaching session I had with Daryl, I opted to wait until we had a few catch ups before writing about how coaching was going. These days I spend longer focusing on the one growth edge, even months at a time.…
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Automatic thinking is stopping you from being a better therapist.
A couple months ago I decided to clear up why I see deliberate practice as being so important in helping us improve as therapists. The main reason is because deliberate practice addresses cognitive biases in ways a that other forms of development do not. There are two forms of cognitive bias that can have a…
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Therapy is not a game of truth.
The medical model assumes that we as therapists are the experts. Meaning that we know best in understanding and explaining what is happening to a client. Therefore only we can name those challenges by giving a correct diagnosis – a client needs us if they want to find the ‘right’ way of getting better. We…
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Is keeping it simple the key to becoming a more effective therapist?
As human beings, we never seem satisfied with simplicity. It’s one of those stories that’s as old as time. We start off with a simple idea, simple ingredients or a simple procedure, but eventually for any number of reasons we decide that the simple place we started on, isn’t enough. We need to add more.…
Deliberate Practice Psych 