Sentio University is excited to present the first-ever intensive, video-based faculty training program focused on Deliberate Practice teaching. The 13-week residency is a special opportunity to learn and apply the Sentio Teaching Model under close mentoring by Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz. In the residency, you will practice your skills by teaching a graduate-level course. Every class you teach will be videotaped, and we will meet weekly in a small group to provide feedback on videos of your classes.
13 weeks of video-based, intensive faculty training in Deliberate Practice teaching.
Teach a graduate-level course and have every class video recorded.
Meet weekly in a small group to receive weekly feedback on video recordings of your classes.
All teaching materials are provided, including slides, clinical videos, and Deliberate Practice exercises.
Residency Benefits
Become Certified as having completed Sentio Deliberate Practice Faculty Training.
Learn cutting-edge Deliberate Practice teaching methods.
Receive feedback on your teaching videos in a small group.
The Sentio Teaching Model is released as “open source”, so you can use it to teach at any other graduate program.
Receive $3,000 stipend at the conclusion of the residency.
Sentio Teaching Model
Sentio has developed a new training model that is significantly different from traditional academic teaching. Applying findings from psychotherapy research and the science of expertise, we emphasize the rigorous integration of didactic teaching and Deliberate Practice.
Many studies now demonstrate that experiential Deliberate Practice training methods are more effective than traditional didactic teaching for trainees’ skill acquisition and professional growth. Perhaps equally important is the finding that trainees themselves consistently indicate that hands-on practice is the most helpful component of their skills training (Hill & Knox, 2013).
The 13-week online Faculty Residency teaches you how to:
Integrate Deliberate Practice skills training into traditional graduate program teaching.
Increase the amount of skill rehearsal in the context of a graduate program course.
Effectively balance conceptual teaching with clinical video demonstrations and skill building exercises.
Identify personalized growth areas for trainees to work on using Deliberate Practice exercises.
Provide effective performance feedback and opportunities for ongoing skill refinement.
Ensure that trainees are rehearsing in their “zone of proximal development” (neither too hard nor too easy).
Use Deliberate Practice to develop the “Person of the Therapist” and therapist self-awareness.
Assign Deliberate Practice homework tasks for trainees to engage in solitary practice.
Residency Schedule
Part 1: Three weeks of onboarding & preparation
Receive all teaching materials, including slides, clinical videos and Deliberate Practice exercises.
Attend three weekly 1hr Zoom classes (exact date and class times TBD based on participant availability).
Practice cutting-edge Deliberate Practice teaching methods.
Part 2: Ten weeks of supervised practice
Teach a 10-week online graduate-level course with weekly 3½ hour Zoom classes.
All classes are videotaped for review and feedback.
Meet in a small group weekly with Alexandre Vaz and Tony Rousmaniere for video-based mentoring, in which you will feedback on videotapes of your classes and engage in group DP skill-building exercises.
Participants will be responsible for the usual work required for traditional graduate teaching (evaluations, etc.).
Total hours: 4½ hours/week (one hour of online group mentoring and 3½ hours of providing online graduate teaching)
Residency Cohorts
Cohort #1 2024 Fall Semester:
On-boarding for 3 weeks in July 2024
10-week course runs from 9/30/2024 to 12/13/2024
Cohort #2 2025 Spring Semester
On-boarding for 3 weeks in January 2025
10-week course runs from 1/21/2025 to 4/4/2025
Cohort #3 2025 Summer Semester
On-boarding for 3 weeks in April 2025
10-week course runs from 5/19/2025 to 8/1/2025
Residency Courses
Below is the list of MFT graduate courses that Residency participants will teach using the Sentio Teaching Model:
Cohort #1 — Fall Semester:
MFT541: Assessment and Diagnosis
MFT542: Ethical and Legal Issues
MFT543: Substance Use and Addiction
MFT551: Theories & Models I
Cohort #2 — Spring Semester
MFT544: Case Concept. & Treatment Planning
MFT545: Trauma & Crisis Intervention
MFT552: Theories & Models II
MFT591: Practicum I (17 weeks, requires CA license)
Cohort #3 — Summer Semester
MFT553: Theories & Models III
MFT554: Theories & Models IV
MFT546: Human & Family Development
MFT592: Practicum II (17 weeks, requires CA license)
Residency Requirements
Applicants must have a masters or doctoral graduate degree from an accredited program and significant experience with the course subject matter.
Applicants do not need prior experience teaching MFT courses.
Applicants may live anywhere in the world. Please note that all Residency meetings will be held during the US Pacific Standard Time Zone (PST). Applicants need to be available to meet between 9am-5pm in this time zone.
Faculty who teach a Practicum course are required to be licensed in California
If you have any questions about the Residency, please email trousmaniere@gmail.com
Why focus on Deliberate Practice teaching?
There is longstanding consensus between researchers and trainers for the need of more procedural skill building opportunities in clinical training programs. For example, prominent researchers Lambert and Ogles concluded:
“The research in rather unequivocal. If a mental health training program values the development of basic interpersonal or interviewing skills, this can best be achieved with a program that clearly specifies the skills to be learned and then develops training (including modeling and practice) directed at this goal. Systematic teaching is superior to unsystematic teaching.” (Lambert & Ogles, 1997, p. 427).
Similarly, an influential literature review on therapist training by Clara Hill and Sarah Knox concluded that:
“Research … has pointed to the effectiveness of instruction, modeling, feedback, and especially practice for learning helping skills.” (Hill & Knox, 2013, p. 803; underlined added)
Research indicates that Deliberate Practice learning procedures seem to be reliably more effective than passive methods at changing behavior (McGaghie et al., 2011; Cross et al., 2011; Beidas & Kendall, 2010; Beidas, Cross, & Dorsey, 2014; Herschell et al., 2010). The Deliberate Practice methods used at Sentio are also distinctive in that they focus on direct observation and monitoring of trainee’s work performance, provision of expert feedback, and tailored behavioral rehearsal aimed at refining one’s performance (Ericsson & Pool, 2016; Rousmaniere et al., 2017).
Many studies have now confirmed what influential researchers Safran and Muran suggested over 20 years ago:
“Training needs to go beyond the didactic presentation of declarative knowledge if therapists are going to develop the combination of procedural knowledge, self-awareness, and reflection-in-action skill necessary to respond to patients in a flexible and creative way. It is important for therapist training to include a substantial experiential component and to emphasize the process of personal growth.” (2000, pp. 206)
The Sentio Teaching Model that participants will learn in this online Residency in a step-by-step approach that answers this call for the rigorous integration of didactic and Deliberate Practice teaching.
About the Residency instructors
Tony Rousmaniere, Psy.D. is Executive Director of Sentio University and Sentio Counseling Center, President of the Psychotherapy Division of the American Psychological Association, and the author of over 20 books on Deliberate Practice and psychotherapy training. He is co-editor of two book series: The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Books) and Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills (Elsevier). In 2017, he published the widely-cited article in The Atlantic Monthly, “What your Therapist Doesn’t Know” He is a licensed psychologist in California and Washington.
Alexandre Vaz, Ph.D. is the Director of Training at Sentio University and the Sentio Counseling Center. He is co-editor of two book series: The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Books) and Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills (Elsevier). He has held multiple committee roles for the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). Dr. Vaz is founder and host of Psychotherapy Expert Talks, an acclaimed interview series with distinguished psychotherapists and therapy researchers. He is a licensed clinical psychologist in Portugal.