Tools › The Training Stack
The Training Stack
A therapist's stack is the set of modalities they can actually run, each at a stated proficiency depth. Derived from the model: portfolio by floor coverage, not
modality count; ACT as primary depth (congruence with the model, the gatekeeper floor, the
psilocybin frame); one thing compiles at a time. The lever each modality pulls is mapped in
How the Major Modalities Recalibrate Priors; what I take from each unit collects in
modality-notes/.
The four tiers
- Master — the identity; the thousand deliberate-practice hours. One modality only.
- Fluent — working command; the daily drivers used in every case.
- Deep — a second certification, added post-licensure, one choice.
- Literacy — concepts used, moves borrowed deliberately, referrals made wisely, exams passed. Most of the catalog lives here, on purpose. In the worked table this tier is written two ways — "Working literacy" (concepts used daily) and "Conversant" (formulate and refer well) — but those are shades of one tier, not two; the app stores one value.
An example stack
The table below is one clinician's stack, kept as a worked example. The app renders the tiers, the reading rules, and the floor coverage; the rows are the user's own.
| Modality | Proficiency target | Floors / lever (the model) | Role in the practice | When | How |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACT | Master — the identity, the thousand hours | 2, 5 (+1 via values) — defusion, acceptance, committed action | Primary modality; the gatekeeper floor's specialist; the psilocybin frame | Now → licensure | ACBS workshops, manuals, peer consult, supervised cases |
| CBT (incl. behavior therapy) | Fluent — working command | 3, 5 — content + prediction-error experiments, exposure/RP | The lingua franca; the cheap floor-3 lever; the furnace's counter-moves | Now — program core | Coursework, practicum, NCE prep |
| Person-Centered | Fluent | The dimmer — conditions, presence | The common-factors spine; nothing writes while it's off | Now — first practicum | Reps, recordings, supervision |
| Motivational Interviewing | Fluent | The dimmer + self-generated discrepancy | Ambivalence work; compromise-formation terrain (Part 6.3) | Now — program core | MI coursework + practice |
| Psychodynamic / IPT / attachment | Working literacy — concepts used daily, method not practiced solo | 4, 6 — transference as assessment, relational prediction error | The floor-4 instrument; informs supervision + own therapy | Throughout; deepens with career | Own therapy, psychodynamic-informed supervision, reading |
| EFT / EMDR / somatic (one, chosen later) | Deep — second certification | 6, 7 — activation + mismatch, regulation | The concrete-floor lever; the stuck cases | Post-licensure, years 1–3 | Formal certification + consultation |
| Existential / logotherapy | Working literacy | 1 + the gate's other verdict — meaning-frame, stance | The therapy of uncorrectable truths; the psilocybin wing's philosophy | Reading now (Yalom, Frankl) | Reading, electives, the modality notes |
| Narrative / SFBT | Working literacy | 1, 2 — filter-fight, re-authoring, exceptions | Floor-1 moves borrowed inside other work | Program unit + reading | Coursework; techniques borrowed deliberately |
| Multicultural / feminist / liberation | Working literacy, never finished | 8 — name the substrate, check the field | The waters; Part 7's boundary discipline | Program core + always | Coursework, supervision across difference |
| Family systems | Conversant — formulate, refer well | 4 at system scale — the distributed furnace | Recognizing system-maintained priors I shouldn't treat solo | Program unit | Coursework; referral judgment |
| Gestalt | Conversant (unless chosen at the Deep row) | 6, 2 — enactment, live awareness | Ancestor of the experiential lever; empty-chair literacy | Program unit | Coursework |
| Adlerian / Reality-Choice / REBT | Conversant — exam and lineage knowledge | 1, 3, 5 — early forms of the same levers | The canon; each formalizes one lever the crosswalk maps | Program units | Coursework, the crosswalk note |
| DBT (skills layer) | Working literacy | 7, 5 — regulation, distress tolerance = deadband training | Skills borrowed for floor-7 stabilization before deep work | Practicum exposure | Skills manuals, site training |
Underneath the modality rows, three brandless layers run the whole stack and belong to no course: the gates (risk, diagnostics, ethics, scope — Part 7, drilled until automatic), the dimmer as a skill of the person (what Person-Centered and MI train, but carried into every hour), and the formulation lens — the model itself, choosing which modality's lever each client actually needs. Dial picks the room; floor picks the tool; the lens picks the row.
Reading rules
- One Master, three Fluents — that carries the degree. ACT gets the identity and the hours; CBT, Person-Centered, and MI get real command because every case uses them.
- Each literacy-tier unit gets one question walking in: this one gets literacy — what is the one lever I'm taking from it? The crosswalk names the lever; the modality note collects it.
- The Deep row waits. One experiential certification, chosen after licensure, one at a time — acquiring certifications in parallel is the jack-of-all-trades error wearing a to-do list.