Ten Changes Psychotherapists Typically Make as They Mature Into the Role of Supervisor

Abstract

Stage models have largely informed scholarship on supervisor developmental processes. We argue that understanding this development as occurring along dimensions is more useful for both supervision practitioners and educators as well as for those engaged in research on supervisor development. Building on the work of Heid () and working with a panel of 7 supervision experts, we identify 10 themes and validate their salience to supervisor development using a sample of 22 clinical supervisors. We describe and elaborate on each theme, and then present and discuss a case vignette that illustrates many of the supervisor developmental themes.

Expert Supervisors' Priorities When Working With Easy and Challenging Supervisees

“…Specific to clinical supervision, researchers have sought perceptions of experts around a range of topics, such as attributes of supervisee reflectivity (Neufeldt, Karno, & Nelson, 1996), ways to improve mandatory supervision of impaired counselors (Rapisarda & Britton, 2007), and psychological processes that underlie supervisor development (Goodyear, Lichtenberg, Bang, & Gragg, 2014). Less often, they have focused on expert supervisors at work.…”

Informal Sources of Supervision in Clinical Training

“…Much has been studied about supervision, including its components, stages, models, and ethics (e.g., Barnett & Molzon, ; Goodyear, Lichtenberg, Bang, & Gragg, ); its inevitable ruptures and dilemmas (e.g., Safran, Muran, Stevens, & Rothman, ); its effective qualities (e.g., Falender & Shafrankse, ); the nature and correlates of the supervisory alliance (e.g., Ladany, Ellis, & Friedlander, ); disclosures and nondisclosures of supervisors and supervisees (e.g., Ladany, Hill, Corbett, & Nutt, ; Yourman & Farber, ); the internalization of supervisor qualities (e.g., Geller, Farber, & Schaffer, ); its overall effectiveness in improving clinical work (e.g., Holloway & Neufeldt, ); and most recently, its expansion through new technologies, including video‐conferencing (e.g., Rousmaniere & Abbass, ).…”

Becoming a culturally responsive and socially just clinical supervisor.

“…As a concept, becoming is a continuous process of transformation (Wilcock, 1999), which involves elements of striving and leads to an eternal achievement of various milestones along the way (Natanasabapathy & Maathuis-Smith, 2019). This coincides with models of supervisor development that describe supervisor development as a continuous process of change (R. Goodyear et al, 2014;Heid, 1998). Second, the SITs noted that the ever-changing sociopolitical landscape in which the field and practice of psychology are situated necessitates continual growth to remain contemporary in their approaches and understanding.…”