Changes in supervision as counselors and therapists gain experience: A review.

Abstract

Considerable research relevant to counselor and therapist development has been done since Worthington's (1987) review. Additional support has surfaced for Worthington's conclusions: There is support for general developmental models, perceptions of supervisors and supervisees are consistent with developmental theories, the behaviors of supervisors change as counselors gain experience, and the supervision relationship changes as counselors gain experience. Although the types of research used and the sophistication of data analysis have improved somewhat, too few studies directly address changes over time for trainees in supervision. Suggestions are given for future research in supervision to reflect the level of specificity necessary to investigate developmental models.Considerable research has been done on the supervision process since Worthington's (1987) review. Although other reviews of this literature have appeared since then (Bernard & Goodyear, 1992;Holloway, 1992), they have been more general in nature and have not effectively reviewed the research in terms of its impact on developmental models of supervision.Worthington (1987) reviewed developmental models of supervision and supervision issues reflective of the developing supervisor. Only one major developmental model of supervision has been proposed since Worthington's (1987) review, so we will not replicate his efforts and review the models again in this article. When appropriate, we make some reference to the one new model, Stoltenberg and Delworth's (1987) Integrated Developmental Model of Supervision (IDM), in areas that are relatively unique to that model.The purpose of this article is threefold. First, our intent is to exhaustively review the supervision research appearing in the literature since Worthington's (1987) review, examine the methodology used, and summarize the results (presented in Appendix). The second purpose is to specifically examine studies that allow for clarification of developmental issues in training by their direct investigation of the effects of experience or measured counselor or therapist developmental level. Finally, be-CAL D. STOLTENBERG received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1981. He is currently the Director of the Counseling Psychology Program at the University of Oklahoma. BRIAN W. MCNEILL received his PhD from Texas Tech University in 1984. He is currently the Director of the Counseling Psychology Program at Washington State University. HUGH C. CRETHAR is currently a doctoral student in the Counseling Psychology Program at the University of Oklahoma. In addition to supervision, he has research interests in areas of group interventions and child abuse and neglect. THE AUTHORS THANK.

Needs and Preferred Style of Supervision Among Israeli School Counselors at Different Stages of Professional Development

“…It seems that all supervision components were highly appreciated by all counselors. Only regarding teaching was there a significant difference between more experienced and less experienced and novice counselors: less experienced and novice counselors required more structured teaching, in keeping with results of previous theory and research (Borders & Leddick, 1987;Loganbill et al, 1982;Stoltenberg et al, 1994;Wiley & Ray, 1986). The counselor supervisors differed significantly from the rest of the groups regarding consultation, requiring less supervision of this style.…”

The On‐Site Mentor of Counseling Interns: Perceptions of Ideal Role and Actual Role Performance

“…The role domains of the ideal mentor are less often mentioned as compared with the four categories indicated earlier, with the teacher role being at the top of the list. These findings are in keeping with previous research (Bernard & Goodyear, 1998;Hart & Nance, 2003;Shechtman & Wirzberger, 1999;Stoltenberg, McNeill, & Crethar, 1994), which indicates that novice counselors prefer the teacher role. The interns expected that the ideal mentor would primarily be a teacher who helps fledging counselors prepare for their new role, and so did the mentors.…”

The Usefulness of Developmental Stage Models for Clinical Social Work Students

“…Two reviews of the research testing the validity of developmental models for counselors and other mental health trainees (Stoltenberg, McNeill, & Crethar, 1994;Watkins, 1995) conclude that empirical support exists for development models. These reviews mention trainees' increases in selfawareness, autonomy, and interest in addressing their personal issues, as well as a deeper, more abstract conceptual understanding of clients and problems as specific developmental changes supported by research.…”