Tutor training programs in composition which emphasize interpersonal skills while offering concentrated correctness doses of mechanics and grammar are inherently limiting. While interpersonal skills are important, they only superficially address the complex situation of tutoring. A prescription for a healthy tutor program, one which would allow tutors to become paraprofessionals, must include measured doses of cognitive training. The tutoring program at the California State University (Northridge) combined Bloom's taxonomy into three "therapies": observation, interaction, and talk. Observation therapy is itself continuous and mirrors the peer collaboration techniques stressed in the program. Tutor trainees meet twice a week for a total of 3 hours. Once a month, the class is converted into a general meeting during which trainees and veteran tutors meet to discuss writing center experiences and issues and to engage in peripheral participation activities. Interaction therapy allows tutors to role play with the knowledge developed during observation therapy. Role playing emphasizes remembering and applying the generalizations and principles developed during observation treatment. Talk therapy, a tutor training course, focuses on the tutors' needs and allows the time for synthesis and evaluation by holistically and organically combining and recombining knowledge, comprehension, application, and analysis. Knowledgeable, well prepared tutors are needed, especially on campuses with rapidly growing diverse populations. (Two figures representing aspects of the tutor training program are included.) (RS)