For Dr. Miller, focusing on common factors in therapy such as alliance, collaboration, empathy, and expectation are clearly necessary, but insufficient for therapeutic change. Nor will an endless stream of CE courses, therapy lectures or hours “behind the couch” make you a better therapist. Research shows that most therapist don’t get better with experience; in fact on average they become less effective! Successful psychotherapy, his decades of research confirms, is about “deliberate practice,” the art and science of becoming an expert. He offers guidance and strategies for a clinical self-improvement program to use before, during and after sessions with your most challenging clients, regardless of diagnosis, presenting problem, or your clinical orientation.
Miller teaches you that by engaging in deliberate practice– the strategy of clinicians he refers to as super-shrinks– you can re-focus on areas of clinical weakness rather than simply reproducing areas of strength. He also discusses the skills necessary to build a tangible and measurable game plan for identifying and eliminating those weaknesses, evaluating clinical performance, and optimizing therapeutic outcome.
