436/4
Section 1
Main Entry (Parts 1-3)
Part 1: In this unit, you listened to the Halloway et al. (2021) podcast episode titled Making Common Factors Common in EBP Practice. The following questions pertain to this resource.
A. Share your reaction to what you learned about the common factors in this podcast. Considering the common factors that the speakers listed, identify 2 or 3 that stood out to you as surprising. Or most important? Hardest/easiest for a clinician to do? Remember to explain your thinking so that we can follow along with your train of thought and join in; briefly describe the podcaster’s position on those point, too (what were some things they said that stood out?).
B. One of the speakers used a “scaffolding” metaphor to explain the relationship between the common factors and empirically based, protocol-driven therapy practices. Given what you know now about this relationship, what metaphor would you use? Apply this metaphor to the speaker’s example of doing exposure therapy with his trainee (found between minutes 21:00- 25:00).
C. If you were in the room with these clinicians while they were recording the podcast, what questions would you have for them? What would you want to know more about? How would knowing this help you better understand the relationship between the common factors and empirically-based practice?
D. Combining what you have learned in this podcast episode with what you read in Chapter 10, offer your perspective on the value of empirically-supported therapies.
Part 2: One of the subheadings in your text reading asks: “Does psychotherapy work?” How would you answer this question? Bring in specific, cited supporting points from your reading to justify your answer.
Part 3: Read through Section 10 of the APA Ethics Code – the section of the code that outlines ethical therapy practice. Of the 10 standards listed, identify two of them that stand out to you and offer:
a. Your general reaction to them.
b. What you see as the importance/value of that standard to the client, to the therapist, and to the field of psychology.
436/5
Section 2
Main Entry (Parts 1 – 3)
Part 1: In your Unit 7 assignment, you will be taking what you have learned about different psychotherapy approaches and applying them to the clinical case you created in your first assignment. Let’s use this discussion opportunity to do some initial legwork on this assignment by doing the following:
a. Choose one of the therapies we learned about in Unit 5 that you think you might explore in your upcoming assignment. Discuss why you are drawn to it for the client in your story in particular and what exactly it might help them with. It would be okay to give a little bit of background on your case, but you don’t have to share too much about it.
b. Do some digging on Google.com/Scholar or the UMGC Library database and find one peer-reviewed, published treatment study that supports the use of this approach for the client’s particular presenting problem. Summarize the methods and the results of this study for us and evaluate whether this would be a good choice from an empirical-support point of view.
c. Brainstorm a journal entry you might use for this client (see the Unit 7 assignment instructions for clarity on what this means) and solicit feedback from your instructor and peers, so that you can feel more confident including it in your Unit 7 piece.
Part 2: The article titled “Building Multicultural Competence in Family Therapy and Counseling” in your Unit 5 Learning Resources highlights how learning abroad is an effective approach at instilling appreciation for multiculturalism and diversity in psychology trainees. If you are someone who has travelled or lived abroad, discuss how your experience aligns (or maybe diverges from, whatever the case may be) from the results of this study. Do you agree with the article’s conclusions? If you have not traveled much, discuss how you might react if you were a trainee in a program that required this training element.
Part 3: Read or re-read the short section on Gestalt therapy in your Chapter 12 reading. Then watch or re-watch Hilda Mwangi’s TED Talk listed in your Learning Resources. Synthesize your own thoughts of the Gestalt view of multicultural diversity in the therapy process. Use Mwangi’s story and take-home messages, including quotes from her talk when appropriate, to illustrate your point.
