Use of video-modelling for therapeutic skills training with students of Psychology and other healthcare disciplines

This paper presents an innovative teaching experience carried out as part of a project in the Teaching Innovation Program at the University of Jaen (PIMED-UJA 2019-2023). The main goal of this project was the production of a series of brief training videos that modelled specific skills in assessment and intervention, in order to facilitate the acquisition of procedural skills specific to the degrees in Psychology and Nursing, as well as to the Health Psychology Masters degree. Faculty from different courses of these degrees (all of them registered healthcare psychologists with experience in their respective domains) scripted different therapy interactions that depicted specific therapeutic skills. The different roles (therapist and client) were played by professional actors that prepared the scripts and received specific feedback from the involved faculty, both before and during the recording sessions. The paper presents results regarding the use of these training videos in three different courses: Foundations of Psychological Assessment, Psychosocial Sciences in Healthcare, and Third Wave Behavioral Therapies in Healthcare Contexts. Students exposed to the training videos showed reductions in anticipatory anxiety, as well as increases in self-efficacy and the perceived utility of training for their future development as healthcare professionals.