Does deliberate practice surpass didactic training in learning empathy skills? – A randomized controlled study

Abstract

A large body of research identifies therapist expressed empathy as one of the most important predictors of psychotherapy outcome. Deliberate practice (DP) is an effective method to improve skills in many fields. We asked if DP also can be used to enhance the skill of expressing empathy. Objective: The aim was to compare the efficacy of DP to didactical learning methods (DLM) in enhancing the skill of empathic expression in students. Method: A repeated measures randomized controlled group design was used. Novice students (N = 36) from psychologist-, medicine-, social work-, and nursing programs received two training sessions of either DP (n = 21) or DLM (n = 15). Participants’ skills in empathic expression were assessed with the Measure of Expressed Empathy (MEE) on three occasions: before the first, between, and after the last training session. Results: Participants in the DP-group showed improved empathic expression, whereas participants in the DLM-group did not. Conclusions: These findings suggest that DP is an effective training method for therapeutic skills such as empathic expression and holds implications for the future development of educational practices to incorporate active skill training methods.