The Psychotherapy Supervision Questionnaire was designed to assess activities and difficulties of psychotherapy supervisors. Seventy-five supervisors with 2 years, or less, experience in supervision completed the Questionnaire, Twenty-nine supervisors were employed in university graduate school programs; the remaining 46 were employed in predoctoral internship sites. The two samples did not differ in demographic characteristics, but there were expected differences in the level and the number of trainees supervised. The two samples differed markedly in their theoretical orientations, with the sample from internship sites placing greater emphasis on psychodynamic approaches. All supervisors reported frequent difficulties with perceived trainee resistance, with understanding the presented material, and with suggesting interventions. Regarding training for supervision, almost one third of the supervisors had no formal training for supervision prior to beginning supervision. An overwhelming majority of respondents expressed interest in receiving more training in supervision and in the supervisory process. Implications of these findings are discussed.Psychotherapy supervision has traditionally been the preferred modality for teaching treatment and intervention skills as part of mental health training programs. Despite the central role of this process in professional training, little attention has been directed, to examining or explicating it. A review of the literature between 1950 and 1975 found that only nine articles on psychotherapy supervision had been publisheq 1 in psychology journals (Baker, Note 1). Most of the literature in this area has traditionally been published in psychiatric, psychoanalytic, and social work publications. However, from 1975 to 1980 the interest in studying psychotherapy supervision has increased, with an associated increase in published literature and professional attention.Despite this evolving interest in the supervision process, many graduating doctoral psychologists join the faculties of clinical training programs with little or no formal education or experience in providing psychotherapy supervision. However, they quickly find themselves in the supervision role, with a parallel absence of postgraduate training or consultation for that aspect of their work load. Informal discussion with colleagues, self-reflection, and reminiscence revealed a remarkable consensus regarding the stress and difficulties encountered by new graduate or junior faculty members when they first began to supervise trainees in psychotherapy. Further, there was some suggestion that the support for and involvement in this aspect of clinical training differed between university-based graduate training programs and clinical internship centers.To further explore the nature of psychotherapy supervision and to delineate the problems encountered by new or inexperienced supervisors, a national survey was conducted. Psychologists new to the role of supervisor were surveyed to determine their particular perspective on sup...

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