A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology in the Humanities Faculty, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg / Supervision is considered to comprise of a relationship within which the learning and understanding of core clinical skills and therapeutic processes occurs. This process is normally facilitated through the provision of feedback. This study aimed to explore student supervisees’ reported experiences of feedback in clinical psychology supervision. A qualitative study was implemented in order to explore the supervisees’ experiences. In depth interviews were conducted with 6 participants within the process of completing their internship and community service requirements. The findings of this study indicate that feedback permeates the supervision relationship, the process of learning and acquiring adequate skills that are essentially for the benefit of clients. Feedback is considered to be an opportunity for supervisors to provide direct instruction or guidance; however, supervisees also expect supervisors to practice caution and sensitivity as the manner in which it is conveyed can have constructive or detrimental effects on the supervision relationship, supervisee growth, and client/patient care. Participants mostly found the experience of discussing supervision and feedback to be beneficial and that little thought is given to such an integral aspect of clinical development

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This correlational study examined the perceptions of 45 pairs of masters-level intern students and their field-site supervisors from the perspective of their supervisory working alliance and a specific personality characteristic, optimism-pessimism. Supervisory pairs completed the Supervisor or Supervisee Demographic Questionnaire, the Working Alliance Inventory Revised, the Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory, and the Life Orientation Test-Revised. Results indicated that supervisor optimism correlated significantly with the supervisor's assessment of the supervisory working alliance but not with the supervisee's working alliance or optimism scores. Supervisees, though generally optimistic, did not assess the supervisory working relationship as highly as their supervisors. Supervisor optimism does impact the supervisory working relationship and merits further investigation. / Graduation date: 1995

An exploratory study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of the Metaphoric Case Drawing (MCD) method of case conceptualization in the context of counsellor-trainee supervision. Supervisors and trainees reported a significant increase in understanding in five core counselling areas: increased understanding of the client, the counsellor's role, the client-counsellor relationship, counselling goals, and case presentation effectiveness. Statistical and qualitative data further confirm the effectiveness of the MCD method in providing a more time-efficient means of case presentation (compared with the traditional Verbal Case Debriefing method). The MCD was found to be particularly useful in case presentations in which the clinical material included themes of depression, suicide, relationship problems, and manipulative clients. Based on the present exploratory study, the MCD method provides a vigorous, stimulating tool for the effective supervision and training of counselling students in a crisis intervention and suicide prevention setting. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to determine the nature and process of clinical supervision via the Internet as experienced by participating supervisees. The subjects of this study were four students in a masters level internship course in counseling at Oregon State University. The course was a pass/no pass counseling internship placement which included an Internet-based clinical supervision component. The qualitative design used in this study was based on a Constant Comparative Methodology using coding categories developed manually and through the use of the QSR NUDIST 3.0 Qualitative Data Analysis Software. This design focused on the collection of textual material from participants engaged in distance clinical supervision. This textual material and subsequent analysis served to help create an emergent theory of distance clinical supervision. Participants evidenced a motivation to participate in the distance supervision experience and advanced not only clinical skill use but also were challenged with the technological aspects of course participation. Findings suggest that the attitudes, prior experiences, and social expectations influenced participant meaning-making and subsequent self-construction of their ideal learning environment. In addition, participants' interest in technology and the convenience of the distance venue provided an impetus toward autonomous functioning in spite of supervisee dependency. This struggle appeared consistent with the theoretical constructs of the developmental models of supervisee process. As supported by Stoltenberg's developmental model of supervisee development, more advanced supervisees perform more autonomously. In this distance supervisory environment, supervisees were offered additional opportunities to operate autonomously which may impact overall supervisee development. This research may have implications for the continued development of the distance supervision method especially in experiential courses in the training of counselors. Recommendations and cautions are offered for the further development of distance supervision courses as well as the need for further research to substantiate the posited theoretical foundations. / Graduation date: 1999

This study was designed to measure and compare individual supervision to triadic supervision in promoting counselor effectiveness and counselor development. During individual supervision, one counselor met with one supervisor for an hour. Two models of triadic supervision were created for this study: Split Focus and Single Focus. Triadic consists of two supervisees and one supervisor meeting for one hour. During the Split Focus, 30 minutes was allocated to each counselor for supervision. During the Single Focus, the whole hour was spent supervising only one of the counselors. The next week, the whole hour was spent supervising the other counselor. Three comparison groups were employed to determine the effectiveness of the three supervision models. An instrument was used to evaluate counselor effectiveness and another instrument was used to evaluate counselor development. 47 masters-level counseling students enrolled in practicum participated in this study. The practicum met for 16 weeks. Each counselor filled out a Supervisee Levels Questionnaire-Revised at the beginning (pre-test) and at the end (post-test) of the semester. This instrument determined the counselor's developmental growth. Each counselor submitted a tape of a counseling session at the beginning (pre-tape) and at the end (post-tape) of the semester. The tape was rated on-site by the doctoral supervisor utilizing the Counselor Rating Form-Short. An objective rater also rated the submitted tapes utilizing the same instrument. The instrument determines counselor effectiveness. At the end of the study, an Analysis of Covariance determined that the three supervision models did differ in developmental growth. The Split Focus grew significantly compared to Single Focus and compared to Individual supervision. However, the Single Focus grew significantly on the factor self and other awareness compared to Individual. In terms of effectiveness, an Analysis of Covariance determined that the three supervision models did not differ significantly.

This study replicated and extended some aspects of a project done by Handley (1980). The primary purpose of this study was to test whether satisfaction with the counseling supervisory relationship was related to the degree of personality similarity between counselor trainees and their supervisors. The degree of personality match was measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Satisfaction was assessed using the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory, the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale, and two general satisfaction questions.The sample was comprised of 42 counselors-in-training at the master's level and 15 superisors at the doctoral level. Supervisors and trainees were paired to make 42 counselor-supervisor dyads. All participants were graduate students at a Midwestern state university counseling psychology program. Twenty six of the trainees were female and 16 were male. Seven of the supervisors were female and 16 were male.In the primary analyses, one-way MANOVAs revealed no relationship between personality match and trainees' and supervisors'satisfaction with supervision. However, several supplementary one-way MANOVAs indicated that there .was a difference in satisfaction with supervision when trainees were matched to same-sex as compared to opposite-sex supervisors. Female trainees were less satisfied with supervision when they were matched with female supervisors. Male trainees were satisfied with both female and male supervisors.Implications of the findings and suggestions for further research were offered. Limitations of the project were also discussed in terms of the type of training program studied and the homogeneity of the participant pool. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Counselor supervision has been examined in many ways; from the angle of the supervisor, the supervisee, and the supervisory dyad. An area that has not been researched as solidly is that of the effect of supervisor race and gender on White trainees' perceptions of supervision. The present study was designed to examine those variables. The independent variables included supervisor race (Black female or White female), trainee gender, and trainees' levels of White racial identity. Dependent variables included perceptions of supervisor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness, and supportive supervisory behavior and evaluative supervisory behavior scores on the Expectations for Supervisor Behaviors Questionnaire. The expectation was that supervisor race, trainee gender, and trainee's level of White racial identity would serve as predictors of perceptions of supervisors and their behaviors.Participants were 50 Caucasian masters level counseling and counselor education students at two Midwestern universities who volunteered for the study. Caucasian female research assistants were utilized to collect the data. Trainees were provided with one of two biographical sketches describing a hypothetical female supervisor; the information in each sketch was identical except for race (Black female or White female). Trainees then listened to a short audiotape of a simulatedsupervision session. Finally, they completed the following surveys: the Supervisor Rating Form (short version), Expectations of Supervisor Behaviors questionnaire, the White Racial Identity Scale, and an author-generated demographic sheet.A canonical correlation was performed to answer the major hypotheses of this study. The results indicated that supervisor race and two subscales of White racial identity, Disintegration and Autonomy, were significant predictors of perceptions of supervisor attractiveness and evaluative supervisory behaviors. Of five canonical roots calculated, this was the only one that was significant.A oneway MANOVA was also computed to test the significance of the supervisor race. The results indicated that the Black supervisor received higher scores on both the supportive and evaluative supervisory behavior subscales than did the White supervisor. Finally, only two other trends were noted. First, female trainees scored both supervisors significantly higher than did male trainees on perceived expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. Second, male trainees scored the Black supervisor significantly lower than the White supervisor on perceived expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness.The significance of these findings for research and practice, and the limitations of the present study are discussed in the last chapter of this dissertation.60 / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the ways that beginning therapists utilize ‘informal supervision’, the process wherein therapists in training engage individuals who are not their formally assigned supervisors in significant conversations about their clinical work. Because the research literature on formal supervision does not adequately acknowledge the frequent use and significance of informal supervision, this study sought to provide a comprehensive understanding of why therapists in training seek informal supervision, what they get out of it, how informal supervision differs from formal supervision, and how it influences trainees’ clinical work and their developing therapeutic identity. Participants were 16 doctoral trainees in clinical and counseling psychology programs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method. Eleven domains emerged from CQR analysis, and results suggest that informal supervision is a valid practice by which trainees in clinical and counseling doctoral programs in psychology develop clinical and professional competencies. The valuable practice of informal supervision was evident in a multiplicity of arenas: in seeking informal supervision, trainees received validation, reassurance, and emotional support. Additionally, trainees used informal supervision to openly and authentically discuss personal anxieties and self-doubt, strong countertransference reactions to patients, and salient clinical challenges and mistakes. Trainees who used informal supervision gained insight into their clinical work, explored diverse approaches to clinical interventions, and increased their capacity to access and use their personal reactions to patients to further their clinical work. Results also revealed important differences between formal and informal supervision, specifically that informal supervision provides trainees with a unique and important space to discuss clinical interactions that lead them to feel emotionally dysregulated, overwhelmed, confused, concerned, upset, and drained – i.e., those aspects of experience that are often not disclosed or are carefully curated in their presentation to formal supervisors – so that they could better understand and use their personal reactions to influence their clinical work. Regarding the former, i.e., personal challenges of clinical work, trainees revealed their personal anxiety, self-doubt, uncertainty, and shame frequently and non- defensively in informal supervision. Lastly, results showed that participants’ concerns about using informal supervision are considerable, and include anxiety about breaking APA’s ethics codes regarding patient privacy and confidentiality Recommendations are proposed for clinical practice and clinical training, including an ‘ethical’ proposal to integrate informal supervision as an important avenue for trainees’ clinical and personal development throughout their training, and thus legitimize its practice. Clear and innovative ethical guidelines regarding the use of informal supervision that are consistent with the APA’s ethics codes are outlined, and future directions are discussed.

Supervision is seen as an essential and important element in the training of counselors. As trainees receive much of their role definition from their supervisors, an unsatisfactory supervisory relationship where the trainee is experiencing incongruence between his or her beliefs about his or her role in the counseling situation and the messages being received from the supervisor can be seen as a source of stress and frustration. The present study was designed to examine the relationship between role conflict, satisfaction with supervision, and psychological strain.Results indicate there is a significant positive relationship between theoretical congruence and satisfaction with supervision. No significant positive relationships were found, however, between role conflict and psychological strain, or between theoretical congruence and psychological strain. Additionally, no significant negative relationships were found between role conflict and theoretical congruence or between role conflict and satisfaction with supervisionFurthermore, post hoc analysis revealed significant relationships by gender. In males, for example, a significant negative relationship was found between supervisory working alliance and role conflict.In females, a significant positive relationship was found between theoretical congruence and supervisory working alliance. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services