Frontiers of Psychotherapist Development

Frontiers Friday #42. Becoming a Deep Learner (Part II)
 
Welcome to Part III of Deep Learner series of our Frontiers Friday Newsletter. 

1. From Deep Learner: The Lack of a Learning System
   What has the healthcare and aviation industry got to teach us about the difference between a performing and a learning system? 
   Here's another sneak peak into Deep Learner (2 more weeks to use the time-limited coupon code. See below).
    
2. Bookworm: How to Take Smart Notes
   I underestimated the influence this book has had on my learning process. Sönke Ahrens takes you on a tour de force on how a systematic way of taking notes has a huge pay-off in your learning. Ahrens brings the  Zettelkasten principle to life. What is Zettelkasten? Read this. It's basically creating bi-direction links in all of your notes. 
   (I talked about this in this podcast episode. Watch the video)
    
3. Watch: Linking Your Thinking
   If you want to find out more on how to use the free app Obsidian to apply the Zettelkasten principles to your note-taking, I recommend you check out Nick Milo's youtube channel, Linking Your Thinking (Warning: Geeking out alert).
    
4. Web Read: Indexing, filing systems, and the art of finding what you have
   Austin Kleon's one of my heroes in the creative domain (check out his book Steal Like an Artist). I'm surprised to read that he recently talked about the issue of not being able to easily retrieve from his piles of notes that he has taken, and was examining the benefits of indexing and organising his notes. 
   
   As I've mentioned in various places, therapists need to develop a personalised learning system (PLS) in order to reap the benefits of their professional development efforts. Otherwise, we are prone to recency bias (e.g., an over-emphasis on the latest workshop that you've just attended).
    
5.  Words Worth Contemplating: Survivorship Bias
   
   Here's an excerpt from How to Take Smart Notes that is worth thinking about: 

   "One of the most famous figures to illustrate this skill is the mathematician Abraham Wald (Mangel and Samaniego 1984). During World War II, he was asked to help the Royal Air Force find the areas on their planes that were most often hit by bullets so they could cover them with more armour. But instead of counting the bullet holes on the returned planes, he recommended armouring the spots where none of the planes had taken any hits. 
   
   The RAF forgot to take into account what was not there to see: All the planes that didn’t make it back. The RAF fell for a common error in thinking called survivorship bias (Taleb 2005). The other planes didn’t make it back because they were hit where they should have had extra protection, like the fuel tank. The returning planes could only show what was less relevant."

Based on 4 tenets to help you for the rest of your professional career, Deep Learner is specially designed to 
 

1. Extend your mind by tapping into the powerful cutting edge science of how we learn best

What Deep Learner is Not?

1. It is not a bag of tricks;

2. It is not a theoretical online course;

3. It is not a pre-recorded lecture, and a poor substitute of face-to-face learning, and

This course is a must if you want to get help in building your own learning system. And I would like to raise a warning finger at the same time, you will need to challenge many of your ideas what will be required of you to become a more helpful therapist. 

That being said, you are not alone in this, above all, Daryl Chow generously shares his knowledge and experience in an educational and personal way. 

~Bengt Göran Lindberg

Lic. psychotherapist, Supervisor, Sweden.
 

Daryl Chow has an amazing ability to translate incredibly complicated material into comprehensible, bite size chunks of wisdom which can be applied in clinical practice and in daily living. 

Daryl's grounded and gentle style engages participants into a rich, collaborative learning experience. This is the second course I've taken with Daryl (the other being Reigniting Clinical Supervision) and he is truly one of the important voices shaping the field of psychotherapy in the 21st century. 

~Keith Klostermann, PhD, LMFT, LMHC, CFT, NCC, AS
Fulbright Specialist Roster, US State Dept.

The Deep Learner Course brings most ordinary learning experiences back to life. I can now more effectively extract the gems from activities that would have been meaningless before.

~ Bert Munger, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor, Vermont, USA

Dr Chow provides a very in-depth and thought provoking course on what it means to be a deep learner and shows you strategies and tips which will help you not only improve your clinical practice, but your work/life balance as well. 
- Melvin S. Marsh, MS (graduate student)