Training Therapists in Common Interpersonal Skills

This chapter emphasizes the significance of training therapists in interpersonal skills to enhance psychotherapy outcomes. It explores the challenges of balancing technical procedures with relational skills in therapist training. The authors discuss various innovative training methods, such as deliberate practice and high-risk simulations, to effectively develop these skills. They highlight the importance of therapists’ abilities to engage with clients’ unique interpersonal traits, stressing that interpersonal skills are crucial for building therapeutic alliances and predicting positive treatment outcomes. The chapter also introduces the Facilitative Interpersonal Skills (FIS) task, which uses standardized video simulations to assess and train therapists in handling difficult clinical scenarios.