What Is Deliberate Practice?

How Sentio University in Los Angeles Trains Better Therapists

Defined by the psychologist Anders Ericsson and colleagues, Deliberate Practice is "the individualized training activities specially designed by a coach or teacher to improve specific aspects of an individual's performance through repetition and successive refinement" (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996, pp. 278–279).

Unlike traditional lecture-based education, Deliberate Practice focuses on a student's individual skill threshold, emphasizes interactive rehearsal for skill acquisition, aims for higher levels of sustained effort, and uses homework to advance clinical ability. Empirical research suggests that Deliberate Practice can significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of psychotherapy education and training (e.g., Goodyear & Rousmaniere, 2017; Rousmaniere, 2016; 2019). Sentio University, based in Los Angeles, California, is the first graduate psychotherapy program to thoroughly integrate this approach, with half of nearly every class spent on Deliberate Practice.

For prospective students exploring Marriage and Family Therapy programs in California, understanding Deliberate Practice is essential to understanding what makes a Sentio education different.

Why Deliberate Practice Is the Gold Standard for Therapist Training in California

Deliberate Practice is an evidence-based method of skill development with roots far beyond psychotherapy. Top performers across a wide range of fields, including medicine, music, athletics, writing, and business, use Deliberate Practice to attain and maintain expertise. The method involves rehearsal within a person's zone of proximal development, ongoing performance assessment, tailored goal-setting, and close mentoring with expert feedback (Ericsson & Pool, 2016).

Decades of research have demonstrated that lengthy engagement in Deliberate Practice is necessary for individuals to achieve the highest level of expert performance across many professions. Over 15 published studies from independent research teams around the world have shown that Deliberate Practice training outperforms traditional "training as usual" methods for clinical skill acquisition. You can explore the full body of research on Deliberate Practice compiled by Sentio faculty.

This evidence base is exactly why Sentio University built its entire MFT curriculum around Deliberate Practice. Students in our Los Angeles-based program do not just learn about therapy in a classroom; they practice doing therapy, receive detailed feedback, and refine their skills week after week.

How Deliberate Practice Works at Sentio University's MFT Program

Deliberate Practice works best when training targets each student's personal skill thresholds, or current ability level. If a Deliberate Practice exercise is either too easy or too hard, the student is unlikely to benefit from it. To maximize training productivity, elite performers follow a "challenging but not overwhelming" training principle. This means that Deliberate Practice requires ongoing assessment of the student's current skill level and tailoring the difficulty of exercises to consistently target a productive challenge.

At Sentio, this principle shapes every aspect of the student experience. Our small cohorts of no more than sixteen students, combined with a 4:1 student-to-faculty ratio, allow our faculty and supervisors to closely monitor each student's development and personalize training accordingly. During weekly online classes, roughly half of each session is devoted to active skill rehearsal. Students practice therapy techniques with partners, receive real-time feedback from instructors, and repeat exercises with adjustments. This cycle of practice, feedback, and refinement mirrors how expertise develops across every high-performance field.

Students then apply what they have practiced in class to real clinical work at the Sentio Counseling Center, our guaranteed practicum site where MFT students gain over 400 clinical hours toward California LMFT licensure. All client sessions are recorded on video and reviewed in supervision, so students receive precise, data-informed feedback on their actual clinical performance. Our supervisors complete an intensive Deliberate Practice Supervision Residency before working with students, ensuring that feedback is not only expert-level but grounded in the Deliberate Practice framework. To get a clear picture of what this looks like day to day, visit our Week in the Life page.

This integrated approach, where classroom skill rehearsal feeds directly into supervised clinical practice, is what we call the Clinic-to-Classroom method. It is unique to Sentio and represents a fundamentally different model of therapist training from what you will find at most graduate programs in California or anywhere else.

What Prospective MFT Students in California Should Know About Deliberate Practice Training

If you are considering graduate programs in Marriage and Family Therapy, you may be comparing Sentio to other California MFT programs. Here is what distinguishes a Deliberate Practice-centered education:

You will practice more. At many MFT programs, classroom time consists primarily of lectures, readings, and case discussions. At Sentio, you will spend hundreds of hours in actual skill rehearsal before you ever see your first client, and that practice continues throughout all five semesters of the program.

You will get more feedback. Every week, Sentio supervisors conduct a comprehensive review of your client session videos alongside clinical outcome data. This is not supervision based on self-report or memory of a session; it is based on direct observation of your clinical work.

You will see your own growth. Sentio collects outcome data throughout treatment, allowing students to track how their clients are actually responding over time. This data-informed approach to clinical development is rare in MFT training and prepares graduates to be accountable, outcomes-focused clinicians.

You will train in multiple evidence-based models. The practicum at the Sentio Counseling Center includes mentorship in skills from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, trauma-informed therapy, systemic therapy, Schema Therapy, and more.

For a look at some of the foundational books behind this training model, visit the Books by Sentio page, which includes titles from the APA-published Essentials of Deliberate Practice series co-edited by Sentio faculty.

Experience Deliberate Practice Before You Apply

You might be worried that all of this sounds overly rigid or academic. While we believe in rigor, accountability, and thoroughness, we also believe that Deliberate Practice can be genuinely enjoyable. Our students regularly report that the interactive, hands-on nature of training is one of the most rewarding parts of the program.

Check out this training video to see Deliberate Practice in action, and watch the promo and final round of the Therapist Throwdown, our one-of-a-kind live training competition where students demonstrate their skills in a supportive, fun, and competitive format.

We also offer a library of free Deliberate Practice videos and exercises that you can use right now to get a feel for the training, along with our Innovation Lab, which features recorded lectures, demonstrations, and the Learn Psychotherapy Podcast and Practice Time! video series.

For prospective students who want to see our training model firsthand, we strongly encourage you to attend an Open House or request to observe a live class. Visiting a class is the best way to cut through marketing and see what a graduate program is really like.

A Nonprofit Committed to Transparency and Training Excellence

Sentio University is a nonprofit institution, and our commitment to openness extends to every part of our operations. Our Transparency page provides public access to our IRS Form 990 filings, financial information, and board-approved governance policies. We believe that prospective students deserve full visibility into how the institution operates and how resources support student training.

This same commitment to evidence and accountability shapes our approach to innovation. Sentio is the first graduate program in mental health to formally implement safe and ethical AI training for students, and our AI Research team conducts original research published in high-impact journals. You can read more about our approach in our Statement on AI.

Take the Next Step Toward Your MFT Career in California

If you are ready to pursue a therapist training experience grounded in evidence, skill, and genuine clinical preparation, Sentio University's 20-month hybrid MFT program, based in Los Angeles with online classes and in-person residencies, may be the right fit.

Explore our MFT Program Overview, review Tuition and Fees and Scholarship opportunities, and learn about licensure information for California and beyond. When you are ready, apply now or request more information to connect with our admissions team.

Contact Us

Mikaela Abundez

Director of Student Services

310-916-9378

mabundez@sentio.org