Insights From Roleplays With Standardised Patients and Live Supervision for Psychotherapy and Counselling Training—A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT Background Live supervision (i.e., providing corrective feedback during therapeutic sessions) as well as roleplays are effective methods used to improve therapeutic skills in counselling and psychotherapy training. Importantly, substantial learning occurs beyond objective skill improvement. For this reason, the aim of the present study was to investigate subjective learning outcomes from roleplays with standardised patients with or without additional live supervision. Methods Using a content‐structuring qualitative approach, semi‐structured interviews with 36 psychology students (91.9% female, M = 26.7 years old, 81.0% bachelor's degree) who had previously participated in a randomised‐controlled study comparing two training groups (roleplay, n = 18 vs. roleplay + live supervision, n = 18) were analysed. Results The students in the present study reported having learned basic communication and alliance skills, as well as conceptual knowledge. Training groups did not differ substantially in their main learning outcomes, yet the live supervision group uniquely reported learnings regarding summarising , ensuring the patient's understanding , and balancing spontaneity and structuring . The students endorsed live supervision for university teaching, and almost half of them felt that the feedback had a greater impact on their learning outcomes than the roleplays themselves. Conclusion Overall, the study highlights that students generated extensive knowledge about basic therapeutic skills from roleplays that were still salient up to 2 weeks later. However, only live supervision helped to put the subjectively acquired knowledge into observable skill improvement, as a comparison with the results of the randomised controlled study shows. Regarding the effectiveness of roleplays alone, it is important to offer students the opportunity for self‐reflection between roleplay sessions.