The Training and Supervision of Psychologists

Teaching Critical Thinking Skills to Psychology Students: A Novel Method and Case Example

The development of critical thinking (CT) is a widely-assumed learning goal in undergraduate and graduate programs in psychology (Bensley, 1998; Halpern, 1998, 2003). Across a range of psychological disciplines, CT is typically approached from the perspective of analytic reasoning and the scientific method (Yanchar et al., 2008), with attention paid to the logical analysis of data, hypothesis support or refutation, and inferencemaking. Despite this emphasis on CT, there seems to be a gap between students’ descriptive understanding of research methodology (declarative knowledge) and their capacity to implement what they have learned in order to critically appraise a psychology literature (procedural knowledge). In this talk, the co-authors present a novel paper assignment formulated by the second author (J.T.) that is designed to support students’ ability to critically evaluate a research literature in psychology. This assignment serves as the final term-paper for a foundational course in the curriculum of a doctoral program (Psy.D.) in clinical psychology.

Specifying the “Critical Thinking” Construct in Clinical Psychology Training: A Proposed

Rubric for Evaluating Student Writing Samples and Its Potential Heuristic Value Critical thinking is a complex multidimensional construct whose presence in academic and training curriculums in psychology has largely been limited to scientific courses on research methodology that focus on the logical analysis of data, hypothesis support/refutation and inference-making. Yet the CT competencies required to function as a clinical psychologist expand beyond the analytic and inferential skills pertinent to the scientific method. Graduate training in clinical psychology has been criticized for not cultivating in students a more refined and contextualized set of CT skills that is directly applicable to their future career roles. Specifically, an alternative model of CT that emphasizes specific dispositional and attitudinal components central to self-experience has been lacking. For the psychotherapist, utilizing self-experience in a reflective and informed manner is a primary meta-cognitive ability that appears highly related to the capacity to form efficacious relationships with clients and to treatment outcome. The current project seeks to conceptualize an alternative model of CT uniquely relevant for clinical psychology training.

Socializing the Psychotherapist-in-Training to an Alternative Form of Relatedness: The Transition from “Being Nice” to “Being Therapeutic” in Clinical Supervision

According to Dr. Tobin, the supervision of psychologists-in-training must facilitate a central transition for the trainee. A major aspect of the trainee is socially-normed attitudes and tendencies which infiltrate the clinical situation and typically impede the development of a distinct “space” or interpersonal field on which psychotherapy relies. Dr. contends that the supervisory situation and the unfolding dynamics between the supervisor and trainee should optimally support the trainee’s capacity to experience him- or herself, and the other, in a more refined mode that liberates the dyad from the psychological and emotional restraints andinhibitions associated with social conventionality.

Clinical Case Formulation & Treatment Planning: A Fact-to-Inference Strategy for
Teaching Psychologists in Training

Clinical case formulation and treatment planning are core competencies of clinical psychologists and other mental health professionals. Yet there is no clear consensus regarding how to support the development of these skills in formal academic and clinical training. According to Dr. Tobin, the standard approach to supporting the development of these skills is “hierarchical learning,” i.e., the trainee is first taught objective facts (declarative knowledge) and then required to transition to more subjective (inferential) forms of thinking in order to understand the cause and maintenance of the patient’s problems. Dr. Tobin suggests that this approach is flawed on numerous levels, Instead, using a scene from the film “Dead Poets Society,” he argues for the primary need to “subjectify” learning for the clinical trainee. The accomplishment of this initial goal will personalize all subsequent academic and clinical training, thus securing inferential capacities even before object knowledge is fully achieved.

Clinical Psychology Case Formulation and Treatment Planning: A Primer

The aim of this primer is to support the learning of clinical case conceptualization and treatment planning for graduate students in clinical psychology, other trainees in the mental health professions, and early-career psychologists and mental health workers.

The Shift from “Ordinary” to “Extraordinary” Experience in Psychodynamic Supervision

In this paper, presented to Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) at the 2012 APA Conference in Orlando, Florida, Dr. Tobin argues that the trainee and novice clinician may create a therapeutic setting in which the therapist manifests an attitude and demeanor drawn largely from standards forms of interpersonal interaction and the mores constituting typical social discourse. Clinical supervision may also reflect an investment in restricted forms of experience, thus leading to “sterile supervision” characterized by defensive processes and false manifestations. Dr. Tobin argues that the clinical situation is an “extraordinary” social experience that sacrifices most forms of standard social discourse in order to create an open space in which therapist and patient are unhindered by that which normally is. Supervision, therefore, should be focused on developing in the supervise a therapeutic persona mobilized by the trainee’s experience of new freedoms encountered in supervision.

The “Wounded Healer” or the “Worried Well”? What We Know About Graduate Students in Clinical Psychology

Doctoral programs in clinical psychology consistently struggle with professional competence among their trainees, and numerous studies report significant numbers of expulsions from graduate study based on academic or nonacademic grounds. Widely attributed to Jung (1951), the wounded healer archetype assumes that clinicians, like all persons, have been negatively impacted by their personal histories, traumas, and interpersonal stressors. According to co-authors James Tobin and Anya Oleynik, a key role and responsibility of graduate programs in the helping professions and advanced training sites involves not only a gatekeeping function, but the capacity to identify and remediate students whose own personal challenges may be effectively resolved and transformed into the strengths ascribed to the wounded healer ideal.

True- and False-Self Manifestations in Applications for Clinical Psychology Internships and Post-doctoral Fellowships

Graduate students in clinical psychology who are applying for advanced training at the pre- and postdoctoral levels often erroneously assume that downplaying one’s own limitations, treatment failures, and narcissistic injuries is advantageous to their chances of being accepted. This paper demonstrates an alternative point of view that emphasizes the attractiveness of candidates who are able to articulate their struggles, ambivalences, and challenges in their early clinical work with patients.

Improving Writing and Critical Thinking Competence in Psychology: A Primer and
Exercise Manual

This manual was composed to support psychology students’ ability at the undergraduate and graduate levels to write more effectively in a variety of contexts within academic and applied settings. The primer is not meant to be a comprehensive writing guide, but focuses instead on the core components of scholarly writing, critical thinking, and the formulation and execution of original ideas. The relevance of these competencies for clinical psychology training is emphasized throughout the manual. Exercises are provided to help the instructor and/or student with practice experiences to support the refinement of the ideas and skills presented.