Reflective Practice

Reflective practice has long been recognised as a key component in skills development in professional training.  Trainees will complete and submit a number of assessed pieces of reflective writing based on the application of CBT techniques to both clients in the workplace and to their own lives.

CTS-R Reflection

You will be required to submit a brief reflection with your CTS-Rs. This should be between 200 and 500 words.

You may choose to reflect on one or two themes that were of relevance to the session. We would expect you to identify the area that you are going to reflect on and then provide a reflective analysis of this area followed by a plan. Your analysis should demonstrate your ability to reflect on your practice and in particular in relation to the formulation of this client’s presentation. The analysis should provide a critical evaluation of the therapy skills that you demonstrate within the recording, drawing on relevant CBT theory, research and literature and identify areas for improvement. The following model may be help with this.

The four stage experiential learning model (Kolb 1984 and Lewin 1946) in Bennett-Levy et al. (2004 p. 19) is the most widely used model in adult education (see fig. 1).

Figure 1.Experiential learning cycle (Bennett-Levy et al., 2004)

Figure 1.Experiential learning cycle (Bennett-Levy et al., 2004)

Different terms have been used by different authors to reflect the same four stages. Plan, Experience, Observe, and Reflect.

Effective learning is said to proceed through a series of these cycles.

Experience: The experience

Observe: What happened

Reflect: Making sense of what happened by

  • Relating it to previous experience and knowledge
  • Searching for understanding
  • Generalising, abstracting principles
  • Fit with the formulation

Plan: With the new understanding, how can I take this forward?

CTS-R Reflection Guidelines:

The purpose of the reflections is to demonstrate your ability to:

  • Reflect on your experience of CBT practice
  • Critically analyse and make sense of that experience (informed by CBT theory and literature where appropriate)
  • Extract useful learning and plan for change

You will be assessed on the following dimensions:

Introduction of topic of reflection
  • Clear identification of one or two issues relevant to the session
  • Description of reflective process (e.g. may have involved the use of a model such as Kolb’s learning cycle, discussion with supervisor, use of thought records etc.)
Experience and observation
  • Description of the relevant concrete experience within the session e.g. client and therapist behaviour, verbal communications and events.
  • Observations of therapist automatic thoughts, emotions and impulses.
Critical analysis
  • Analysis of experience and observations within the session and beyond taking an objective and critical stance and presentation of alternative interpretations.
  • Analysis should be informed by the client's formulation (and/or where applicable the therapist's formulation).
Understanding and use of theory
  • Integration of critical analysis with existing knowledge of CBT
  • Integration of critical analysis with relevant CBT literature and research where appropriate
Summary and implications for future practice
  • Summary of learning
  • Description of concrete and specific plans for active experimentation, further learning and clinical practice (including awareness of own assumptions etc.)
Structure & style:
  • Clear structure with a logical flow
  • May use existing models of reflection such as Kolb’s learning cycle to structure
Spelling / Grammar / Typos
  • Work should be double spaced and page-numbered.  Work should be comprehensible and so please check for typographical, grammatical and spelling errors.  Where possible ask someone else to proof read your reflection before submitting. If you need support in this area please use the study skills department.
References
  • References should conform to APA (7th Edition) both in text and at the end of your reflection (see University guidance). Please check references in terms of accuracy and consistency and ensure that all citations in the text are referred to in the reference section. Minor errors with referencing will not impact on the overall mark, however disregard for APA referencing, or severe departures from APA, may impact the overall mark.

Word Count: 200 - 500

Download Forms

Please refer to the Download Forms page.