Part B. When you began at Northcentral University, you declared a specialization

Part B. When you began at Northcentral University, you declared a specialization (General Family Therapy). Your specialization will be the central focus of the two capstone experiences for the doctoral program, the Advanced Practical Experience Component (APEC) and the dissertation. In addition, it should be a lens with which you view the course assignments and the clinical components of the program. We also anticipate that you selected the specialization that you did so that it will inform the professional activities you engage in once you complete the program.
Several years ago, two professors at the University of California, Berkeley, proposed a five-stage model of skills acquisition. The proposed that individuals acquire skills through practice and being taught. Although the model has detractors, it provides a useful lens to examine the process of becoming proficient in a particular activity. Chaffin and Cummings (2012) used this model to examine the process of skill development for financial planners.
In part B of the assignment, you will create a modification of part of Table 1 from Chaffin and Cummings (2012) based on your evaluation of becoming an expert in your specialized area in General Marriage and Family Therapy. In constructing your table, identify which of the five stages best describes your current situation and provide 5-7 personal and specific examples for each of the five cells in your version of the right column (MFT Specialization Examples). Your table will have six rows and just two columns (you will not complete the Characteristics of the Dreyfus Model column).
Consider the following example to get you started. Suppose a student named Maria is specializing in Couple Therapy and has determined she is in the competent stage. The examples she lists in the Novice and Advanced Beginner cells are her past behaviors—how she remembers what it was like for her during her process of becoming a couple therapist (see below). Her descriiption of the Competent stage is where she is now. She will then need to speculate about what it will look like when she is in the Proficient and Expert stages.
Table 3. Maria’s Example
Stage Descriiption of My Therapy at this Stage
Novice • Tentative
• Conflict avoidant
Advanced Beginner • Beginning to recognize process, but still got lost in content
• Tended to side with the least hostile partner
Competent • Able to sit with most conflicts
• Comfortable reflecting on each partner’s contribution to the cycle
Proficient
Expert
You will create a table like Maria’s in a Word document and complete the five cells in the right column. After you have done so, you will write by addressing the following items:
My journey. Please explain how you got to where you are now and what you need now and in the future to get you to the Expert stage (if perchance you determine that you are already at the Expert stage, you will explain how you got there). In your narrative, please discuss, at a minimum, (a) the role of formal instruction, (b) clinical supervision, (c) mentoring, (d) your own reading and process of seeking knowledge, (e) the therapy you provided, (f) your own personal therapy (if relevant) and (g) the contribution of your clients to your growing expertise. In your discussion, be sure to integrate at least two points from the research conducted by Miranda et al. (2016) on the nature of expertise in genetic counseling.
Finally, a reality of your clinical journey is that it did not occur in a vacuum. Two of the readings for this week articulated the impact of globalization and critical patriotism. End your narrative with an examination of the ways that your clinical journey has been and continues to be shaped by these issues in the country(America) in which you practice.
Part C. In Week 1, you identified three possible topics(CBT and Trauma) for your dissertation study. Pick one of them and search the NCU Library for a published study that remotely resembles the study you might want to conduct for your dissertation(CBT and Trauma). After you locate and read the study, you are ready for the written task: Assume an adult family member, who is NOT a researcher or academic scholar and is somewhat unfamiliar with the process of graduate education, asks you to explain what a dissertation is. After you explain the concept, your family member asks what kind of study you might conduct for your dissertation. Then, write a one-paragraph summary of the article you found in language your family member will understand (part of becoming a doctoral-level scholar is learning to translate scientific information into language laypersons can understand).
Length: One paragraph