Empirical research in clinical supervision: a systematic review and suggestions for future studies

Abstract

Background: Although clinical supervision is considered to be a major component of the development and maintenance of psychotherapeutic competencies, and despite an increase in supervision research, the empirical evidence on the topic remains sparse. Methods: Because most previous reviews lack methodological rigor, we aimed to review the status and quality of the empirical literature on clinical supervision, and to provide suggestions for future research. MEDLINE, PsycInfo and the Web of Science Core Collection were searched and the review was conducted according to current guidelines. From the review results, we derived suggestions for future research on clinical supervision. Results: The systematic literature search identified 19 publications from 15 empirical studies. Taking into account the review results, the following suggestions for further research emerged: Supervision research would benefit from proper descriptions of how studies are conducted according to current guidelines, more methodologically rigorous empirical studies, the investigation of active supervision interventions, from taking diverse outcome domains into account, and from investigating supervision from a meta-theoretical perspective. Conclusions: In all, the systematic review supported the notion that supervision research often lags behind psychotherapy research in general. Still, the results offer detailed starting points for further supervision research.

What do clinical supervision research reviews tell us? Surveying the last 25 years

“…That three of the most recent supervision reviews surveyed here (Alfonsson et al, ; Barrett et al, ; Kühne et al, ) followed these systematic review and registration guidelines also seems good, reflecting efforts by supervision researchers to maintain the highest research standards, be highly rigorous in the process and produce the promised product for study and scrutiny. Future supervision systematic reviews would do well to follow the lead of these three efforts (Alfonsson et al, ; Barrett et al, ; Kühne et al, ).…”

“…But what is most surprising from this survey of reviews is the limited evidence that affirms any type of supervision impact at all: although attention to clients and client outcome was identified frequently and repeatedly as being sorely needed (e.g. Alfonsson et al, ; Kühne et al, ), any evidence that supervision benefits supervisees was highly tentative and quite thin at best. Supervision has indeed been found to be associated with some positive outcomes (e.g.…”

“…Supervision, found to be positively associated with job satisfaction, job retention and ability to manage workload (Carpenter et al, ; O’Donoghue & Tsui, ), appears to be seen as helpful by supervisees (Kühne et al, ) and may even benefit their therapeutic competence (e.g. enhanced self‐awareness, enhanced sense of self‐efficacy; Alfonsson et al, ; Kühne et al, ; Wheeler & Richards, ). But supervision's favourable impact on worker outcomes is weak at best, yet to be proven (Bogo & McKnight, ; Carpenter et al, ).…”

“…Methodological issues and study shortcomings were consistently identified and can be placed into three (not necessarily mutually exclusive) broad groupings: (a) failure to control for compromising variables; (b) type of study conducted; and (c) recurring issues about critical study components. Frequently identified compromising variables included unaddressed threats to validity, sources of bias and confounds, as well as inadequate reporting and description of study specifics (Alfonsson et al, ; Buus & Gonge, ; Carpenter et al, ; Ellis et al, ; Ellis & Ladany, ; Ellis et al, ; Freitas, ; Kühne et al, ; Tsui, ). The vast majority of studies were described as being ex post facto, cross‐sectional and correlational (i.e.…”

“…Moreover, because a spike in supervision research reviews has occurred across these last five years alone (e.g. Alfonsson, Parling, Spännargård, Andersson, & Lundgren, ; Barrett, Gonsalvez, & Shires, ; Forshaw, Sabin‐Farrell, & Schröder, ; Kühne, Maas, Wiesenthal, & Weck, ; Newman, Simon, & Swerdlik, ), the time for such a survey would seem especially apropos.…”