What is the Practicum?

Second Consultants can be found via the Find a DDP Practitioner,Consultant or Trainer page.

Your Primary Consultant can also help you find your Second Consultant.

Either your Primary or Second Consultant must be from the country in which you live and work.

This means that, for example, if you live in the UK and your Primary Consultant lives in Canada, your Second Consultant needs to live in the UK. In this way your Second Consultant can link you with ongoing supervision, community networks and practice issues that are specific to your country. Your Primary Consultant will help you with this.

While this is the ideal we recognise that not all countries have certified DDP Consultants. In these situations, your Primary Consultant will work at linking you with others who are involved with or developing DDP in your country. If there are no others, your primary consultant will help you set up a structure whereby you can receive ongoing support and mentoring.

• Please remember that this is a skills-based practicum and 10 is the minimum number of reviews. Please be prepared if more than 10 reviews are required.
• The Consultant’s reviews and feedback may be given in person (in an individual or group setting), by phone, by Internet communication programmes, such as SKYPE or ZOOM.
• If you are certified in a group, each of your reviews will need to take at least 45 minutes.
• You and your consultant will decide how best to write up the review recommendations, depending on how your reviews are undertaken. For example, if you are in a supervision group, you may both agree to write up the feedback as it happens, rather than the Consultant have to write it up later after the group.
• You need to demonstrate that you have incorporated recommendations into your next recording. You can’t therefore submit a number of recordings at once.
• Video recordings that are mailed or shown via the internet must be done securely.

• You can approach someone independently to be your Secondary Consultant or your Primary Consultant can help you find one.
• It is recommended that your Secondary Consultant is not a close working colleague of your Primary Consultant to increase the independence of this part of the review process. For example, if you are being certified in a group setting, with the group run by two Consultants, your Second Consultant should not be the group co-leader.
• One recording around the mid point, as decided by your Primary Consultant, will also be reviewed independently by your Secondary Consultant.  This is usually around your 5^th, 6^th or 7^th submitted recording.
• The purpose of the independent review process is to maintain reliability and validity to the DDP model.
• Your mid point reviews need to be of a complete session, approximately one hour long, involving a parent and child. Your mid-point review needs to be of a complete session, approximately one hour long, involving the appropriate family members for your particular practice certification e.g. if certifying to work with parent and child then the recording should be of a parent and child session, if certifying to work with parents only then the recording should be of a parent(s) session.  Your consultant will advise and will
  provide you with written reviews and completed DDP Rating Scales by both Consultants. You are given both your Primary and Second Consultants reviews and Rating Scales.
• When both Consultants agree, you will move onto the second half of the practicum.
• Occasionally, if it is felt that sufficient progress is not being made, your Primary Consultant will discuss possible next steps with you, such as supervision prior to continuing with the practicum
• If the Primary and Secondary Consultants do not agree on the recommendation, then the DDPI Board Review Committee, whose decision and recommendations will be final, will review the recording and written materials