Experiential Training in Eliciting Disclosure & Emotions for Mental Health Trainees

NCT04511754 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: IRB20062468B3
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 102
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Many people seek psychotherapy to alleviate symptoms related to trauma and stressful conflicts, and many psychotherapy approaches aim to help people process trauma and conflicts through eliciting client disclosure of these experiences and activating related emotions. However, many therapists avoid implementing such approaches because they are emotionally challenging for both the client and the therapist, and because therapists lack direct training in specific skills related to eliciting client disclosure and working with emotions. This suggests that providing therapists with a training experience that is experiential, includes direct supervision and feedback, and addresses therapists' reservations and anxieties may be an important approach to increase therapist skills in disclosure elicitation and emotional activation. This is a randomized trial that will test two methods of training (experiential vs. standard) of master's level psychotherapy students in specific therapeutic skills aimed at increasing trainees' emotional awareness and self-regulation and reducing trainee anxiety and avoidance of eliciting disclosure and working with emotions in psychotherapy. In the standard training condition, the trainee will receive a lecture about the skills including rationale and research background, examples, and opportunities to ask questions. In the experiential training condition, the trainees will receive information about the skills with examples and will have opportunity to practice using short video clips of actors portraying clients. The trainees will be asked to respond to the short clips using the skills they learned, and a trainer will process the trainees' reactions after they respond to each practice video clip and will provide feedback to the trainees about their performance on the practice. Findings from this study will provide information about the feasibility of training in specific disclosure elicitation and emotional activation therapy skills, and will provide information about whether or not live supervision will lead to greater improvement in the targeted skills compared to entirely standard training.

Conditions

Trauma; Emotions; Disclosure

Keywords

Clinical Training; Mental Health Trainees; Experiential

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in targeted therapy skills from baseline to post-training and 1-month follow-up

  Participant will respond brief pre-recorded videos of actors portraying clients in therapy, and the participant responses will be recorded and coded for skills acquisition using a structured protocol.

  Immediately Post-Training and 1-month follow-up

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Satisfaction with training content and satisfaction with training learning

  Immediately Post-Training and 1-month follow-up

• Change in self-efficacy from baseline to 1-month follow-up

  1-month follow-up

• Change in affect phobia from baseline to 1-month follow-up

  1-month follow-up

• Change in anxiety from baseline to 1-month follow-up

  1-month follow-up

• Change in depression from baseline to 1-month follow-up

  1-month follow-up

Study Arms (2)

Experiential Training Condition

EXPERIMENTAL

Trainees will be taught the following skills during a single session: 1) Therapist in-session emotional-awareness and self-regulation; 2) Facilitating client disclosure of traumas and other difficult experiences; and 3) Helping clients access and experience adaptive emotions. In the experiential training condition, the trainees will receive information about the skills with examples and will have opportunity to practice using short video clips of actors portraying clients. The trainees will be asked to respond to the short clips using the skills they learned. A trainer (a graduate student in clinical psychology) will pause and process the trainees' reactions after they respond to each practice video clip and will provide feedback to the trainees about their performance on the practice.

Behavioral: Experiential Psychotherapy Skill Training

Standard Training Condition

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Trainees will be taught the following skills during a single session: 1) Therapist in-session emotional-awareness and self-regulation; 2) Facilitating client disclosure of traumas and other difficult experiences; and 3) Helping clients access and experience adaptive emotions. In the standard training condition, the trainee will receive a lecture about the skills including rationale and research background, examples, and opportunities to ask questions. The standard training condition will not include opportunities for practice or live discussion and feedback from the trainer.

Behavioral: Standard Psychotherapy Skill Training

Interventions

Experiential Psychotherapy Skill Training BEHAVIORAL

The Experiential Training intervention will include components of training not usually included in standard clinical training experiences; such components include opportunities for deliberate practice of the skills trained, live supervision and feedback, and discussion with a trainer focused on the skills taught and the trainees' performance.

Experiential Training Condition

Standard Psychotherapy Skill Training BEHAVIORAL

Standard didactic training with research support, examples, and opportunities to ask questions.

Standard Training Condition

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Graduate students in mental health-related graduate programs (e.g., social work, counseling, and clinical psychology).

You may not qualify if:

• None

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Mark A. Lumley: lead

Study Sites (1)

Wayne State University Department of Psychology

Detroit, Michigan, 48202, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Yamin JB, Cannoy CN, Gibbins KM, Krohner S, Rapport LJ, Trentacosta CJ, Zeman LL, Lumley MA. Experiential training of mental health graduate students in emotional processing skills: A randomized, controlled trial. Psychotherapy (Chic). 2023 Dec;60(4):512-524. doi: 10.1037/pst0000495. Epub 2023 Jun 29.

  PMID: 37384434 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Wounds and Injuries

Study Officials

• Mark A Lumley, PhD

  Wayne State University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Both trainee and researcher will be blinded to training condition assignment prior to randomization, and follow-up assessment will be blinded.
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Distinguished Professor of Psychology

Model Details: Participants will be randomized at a 1:1 ratio to either the standard training or the experiential training condition.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 7, 2020
• First Posted: August 13, 2020
• Study Start: December 9, 2020
• Primary Completion: June 22, 2021
• Study Completion: June 22, 2021
• Last Updated: August 4, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)