Supervision in Family Therapy: A Decade Restudy*1

Abstract

This paper reports on a 10‐year replication of Everett's (1980) survey of Approved Supervisors of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). Significant differences were found between today's supervisors and supervision, including an increase in female supervisors, a shift toward a systemic theoretical orientation, greater concentration of supervisors in formal training settings, a great increase in the use of video recordings, a decline in the popularity of personal psychotherapy as part of training, a greater inclination of supervisors to identify themselves as Marital and Family Therapists (MFTs) regardless of original education, and others. The Approved Supervisor system appears to be fulfilling AAMFT organizational goals; other results will be reported elsewhere.

Communication flow and change theory within a family therapy supervision model

“…For instance, in a human service clinical employment setting, family therapy clinicians may not be able to choose their clinical supervisor because of work assignments. Nichols et al (1990) found that 70.8% of family therapy supervision occurred as part of employment.…”

“…Family therapy clinicians have been encouraged to pursue supervision as a quality control measure and professional growth development aid to serve as a professional clinical vehicle for change. Nichols et al (1990) demonstrated that 90% of COAMFTE approved supervisors rated the need for clinician supervision as ''important'', ''very important'', or even higher.…”

“…Research has demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the use of live supervision from 1976 to 1986, and a statistically significant decrease by 2001 (Everett, 1980;Lee, Nichols, Nichols, & Odum, 2004;Nichols, Nichols, & Hardy, 1990). Video recording as a method of supervision has increased dramatically in this time period.…”

On Becoming a Supervisor in Family Therapy

“…Rather, family therapy training procedures (with live supervision being the main mode of training), is similar to that of training supervisors-to-be: The apprenticeship model is complemented with advanced theoretical courses in family therapy (Nichols, Nichols & Hardy, 1990). The need for formal training of family therapists became apparent with the growing number of training programs (Keller, Protinsky, Lichtman, & Allen, 1996;Liddle, Breunlin & Schwartz, 1988;Constantine, Piercy & Sprenkle, 1986;Liddle et al, 1984).…”

A Comparison of AAMFT Approved Supervisors with Master?s and Doctoral Degrees

“…designation (Everett, 1980;Lee, Nichols, Nichols, & Odom, 2004;Nichols, Nichols, & Hardy, 1990) have been important sources of information on the changes. Among the more striking developments has been the increase in Approved Supervisors holding a master's degree as their highest clinical degree.…”