There are so many ways to learn to do therapy, and so many different ways of doing it. We learn various theories and how therapy is done in each of those theories, and practice in role play with other students, and get feedback on that. In my program we finished all of the classes first before ever seeing actual clients, so there aren't clients to get feedback from at that point. Now that I'm an intern, I have gotten actual feedback from clients. It's not a bad practice for any therapist, student or experienced, to check with the clients and ask if they are getting what they need, or if there is anything the client would rather was different.

Therapy is based on real conversation, and while there are some phrases that tend to be used over and over, and sometimes bits and pieces of theories and techniques are going to come up, there really is no way to memorize responses for every client or situation. The first thing we learn is how to listen to the client and how to help the client feel that they are being heard. There are specific techniques we are taught even for that, but we practice them all the time and incorporate them into our conversation skills, I think.