Toward Accountability in Supervision: A Single-Case Illustration

This article illustrates the potential of a single-case research design as a method for demonstrating supervisor accountability. A supervisor in training employed a multiple baseline design to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief supervisory intervention. The targeted counselor behaviors were a decrease in the use of questions and an increase in reflections of feelings. The intervention consisted of counselor self-monitoring and supervisor reinforcement. The data showed marked decreases in counselor questioning, accompanied by increases in reflections of feeling. Concomitant changes in client behavior included more active participation in the session and more frequent discussion of feelings. The decrease in counselor questions was stable over a follow-up period. The process and decisions involved in using a single-case design to evaluate supervisor effectiveness are discussed.     

Supervisory Style: Its Relation to the Supervisory Working Alliance and Supervisor Self‐Disclosure

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between supervisor perceptions of their supervisory style and elements of the supervision process, including the supervisory working alliance and supervisor self‐disclosure. Data from 137 counselor supervisors demonstrated a significant positive relationship between attractive, interpersonally sensitive, and task‐oriented supervisory styles and the (a) goals, tasks, and bond components of the supervisory working alliance and (b) frequency of supervisor self‐disclosure. Limitations and implications for counselor supervision theory, research, and practice are addressed.     

Review of Research on Practicum Supervision

This 10-year review of articles on practicum supervision examines articles in terms of findings and research design employed. Research is classified according to (a) role of the supervisor, (b) process of supervision, and (c) rating systems in practicum. While the studies reviewed were indicative of prevalent characteristics of counselor candidates and procedures for rating their counseling performance, still unclear are: expected supervisory roles, the effects of various roles on trainee performance, and the differential effectiveness of contemporary methods of supervision in assisting counselors to work more effectively with their clients. More highly refined experimental studies of counselor supervision are urged.     

The Counselor Culture and Client-Centered Practice

Filters or sources of distortion inherent in the counselor culture can diminish the counselor's ability to understand a person asking for help. A counselor's role, theoretical orientation, work context, and personal experience influence the interaction between counselor and client so that the client may not be the center of the counseling process. Remedies to reduce such distortions include heightened awareness of the filters' existence, participation in supervision in which counselor and supervisor have access to the same client, and research to establish empirically the presence and effects of various filters on counselors' views of clients.     

Using Motivational Interviewing Techniques to Address Parallel Process in Supervision

Supervision offers a distinct opportunity to experience the interconnection of counselor–client and counselor–supervisor interactions. One product of this network of interactions is parallel process, a phenomenon by which counselors unconsciously identify with their clients and subsequently present to their supervisors in a similar fashion ( Searles, 1955 ). Addressing parallel process has the potential to be valuable in the advancement of counselor development, but few strategies exist in the literature for working with the phenomenon. The authors describe the use of motivational interviewing as one method for effectively addressing parallel process in supervision.     

Counselor Experience Related to Complexity of Case Conceptualization and Supervision Preference

The authors investigated the relationship among trainees' counseling experience, familiarity with specific client symptomatology, case conceptualization integrative complexity (i.e., the ability to differentiate and integrate knowledge related to specific client symptomatology), and preference for supervisor style. Data from 100 beginning practicum to intern‐level counselor trainees revealed that general trainee experience and familiarity with specific client symptomatology were related to trainee case conceptualization integrative complexity. However, contrary to developmental models of counselor supervision, neither trainee experience, familiarity with specific symptomatology, nor trainee case conceptualization integrative complexity significantly predicted preference for supervisor style.     

Supervisees' Perceptions of Their Clinical Supervision: A Study of the Dual Role of Clinical and Administrative Supervisor

A study of 158 postdegree counselor supervisees showed that 49% had a clinical supervisor who was also their administrative supervisor. Supervisees reported overall satisfaction with clinical supervision, with no statistically significant differences between those whose supervisor served in both clinical and administrative roles and those receiving supervision from only a clinical supervisor. Furthermore, the majority of supervisees receiving clinical and administrative supervision from the same person did not view this dual supervisory role as problematic (82% of n = 70), and 72.5% reported specific benefits. Implications for research and practice are provided, with attention given to ethical considerations.     

The Influence of Supervisory Racial Identity Interaction and Racial Matching on the Supervisory Working Alliance and Supervisee Multicultural Competence

Data from 105 counselor trainees indicated that supervisee–supervisor racial identity interactions were related to the supervisory alliance, and racial identity interactions and racial matching influenced supervisees' development of multicultural competence.     

A Multimodal Approach to Counselor Supervision

This article represents an initial effort to apply Lazarus's multimodal approach to a model of counselor supervision. The supervision model emphasizes the importance of considering the trainee's total counseling experience. As a means of accessing the trainee's total experience, the supervisory process includes continuously monitoring the trainee's Behavior, Affect, Sensations, Images, Cognitions, Interpersonal functioning, and when appropriate, Biological functioning (Diet and Drugs). The multimodal model of supervision is presented as supervisee-specific; and the multimodal supervisor is seen as flexible, adaptable, and technically eclectic. Key multimodal supervision procedures, such as establishing a trainee modality profile and tracking the modality firing order, are presented and discussed via a case example.     

The Effects of Assertive Training on Counselor Trainees

It has been suggested that the addition of assertive training as an integral part of counselor education programs would be desirable. Although this study indicates that assertive training is effective in reducing counselor discomfort and anxiety, such training has no significant effect upon client or supervisor ratings of counselor effectiveness. Therefore, the addition of such a training experience seems, at best, to be open to question.     

Counseling Effectiveness and Trainee Helping Qualities: Another View

This study addresses the importance of client satisfaction as an index of counseling effectiveness and also examines the relationship between trainee personality characteristics and supervisor ratings of trainee performance. Results indicated that a significant inverse relationship existed between trainee levels of self-acceptance and client's ratings of counseling satisfaction. Supervisor's ratings of the trainee's performance and progress in supervision were also inversely related to trainee levels of self-acceptance. Agreement was found between supervisor's ratings of trainee performance and client satisfaction with counseling. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of counselor training programs and future research designs.     

The Effects of Group Supervisor Roles on Practicum Students' Interview Behavior

This study investigated the effects of two supervisory roles (restrictive and nonrestrictive), when used within the small group practicum seminar, on counselor trainees' ability to emit understanding, affective, and exploratory responses in their final counseling interviews at the end of training. These results were compared to those of a control group that did not use a supervisor. Significant differences were observed only in the ability of the trainees to emit understanding responses.     

Relationship dimensions in the professional supervision of psychology graduates: supervisee perceptions of processes and outcome

The professional supervision of new graduates to ensure both their effectiveness with clients and their personal learning and development is a common feature of a range of human services contexts. This study investigated psychology supervisees’ perceptions of relationship processes and outcomes in professional supervision. The relationship constructs of supervisor support, challenge and openness were investigated and related to the outcome variables of supervisee anxiety and perceived effectiveness of supervision. Psychology graduates (n=261) involved in the process of professional supervision for registration responded to a mail survey regarding the quality of their supervisory relationship. Findings established the relationship dimensions of levels of supervisor challenge, supervisor support and supervisor openness as independent but related constructs. Supervisees’ perceptions of supervisor support and openness predicted their perceptions of supervisor effectiveness. Supervisees’ perceptions of level of supervisor challenge predicted their self-reported levels of evaluative anxiety or defensiveness in the supervisory process.     

Examining Supervisor Impairment From the Counselor Trainee's Perspective

Although there is a growing body of literature on counselor impairment, the topic of supervisor impairment has surprisingly been overlooked. The author explores the implications of working with an impaired supervisor at various levels of counselor development and discusses some of the critical factors that may influence how a supervisee decides to handle this problem. In addition to discussing the misuse of power by the impaired supervisor, other factors (e.g., the nature and severity of the supervisor's impairment) are also discussed. The author presents an ethical decision‐making model that can be used to guide the counselor trainee through the arduous process of determining a viable course of action.     

Effectiveness of Group Supervision Versus Combined Group and Individual Supervision

This study investigated the effectiveness of large group supervision, small group supervision, and combined group and individual supervision with counseling students. Sixty‐four participants in a master's‐level practicum were divided into 3 treatment groups that received supervision over 10 weeks. Using a pretest/posttest method, counselors were rated on growth in effectiveness and development according to self‐report, supervisor, client, and objective rater responses. Analyses of covariance revealed that all supervision formats resulted in similar progress in counselor effectiveness and counselor development. Large group supervision produced a significant result on the factor Autonomy/Dependency. However, participants showed a marked preference for individual feedback and supervision.     

Personality Type and Clinical Supervision Interventions

In this study, the authors investigated personality type of supervisors and supervisees and interventions chosen by supervisors for 78 supervisory dyads from 9 different counselor education programs. Gender effects were also investigated. Results indicated that interventions were not influenced by supervisor personality type as measured by the Revised NEO (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to New Experiences) Personality Inventory (NEO PI‐R; Costa & McCrae, 1992a), nor were they influenced by similarity or dissimilarity of supervisory dyads by type or gender. Rather, most supervision interventions were Intuitive or Perceiving as measured by the Focus of Supervision Form. One exception was when supervisees scored high on Openness on the NEO PI‐R, which resulted in supervisors choosing Judging interventions.     

The resiliency wheel: A training model for enhancing the effectiveness of cross-cultural interviews

The Resiliency Wheel provides interview guidance tocounselors in training. The interview format providesenough structure for beginning counselors to feelcomfortable with the questions, but offers flexibilityto more experienced counselors as they formulate newquestions as the client's story unfolds. TheResiliency Wheel provides a way for counselors to linkindividual client strengths while drawing from thefollowing factors: person, family, community, spirit,and culture. A diagram of the resiliency wheel can beused to record client information. The questionsallow the counselor in training to become familiarwith other cultures and worldviews. This awarenessincreases a counselor's cultural sensitivity andempathy around issues of oppression, discrimination,and racism due to one's ethnicity. The studentcounselor is given the opportunity to ask specificquestions about a culture and realize the differences,but also the similarities between the counselor andthe client. The Resiliency Wheel assists thecounselor to develop a holistic understanding of theclient and to be able to reflect this understanding tothe client visually as well as verbally. Theinterview process in itself can bring about a deepersharing of client identity and experience,contributing to the bond between client and counselor.     

Moral Development and Empathy in Counseling

Of interest to counselor educators are variables associated with helper empathy. The authors investigated the relationship between empathy and moral development. Students enrolled in a facilitative skills development course completed a measure of moral development before making their first counseling audiotape. After approximately 12 weeks of skills training, they were subsequently rated for their demonstration of empathic understanding to client statements on an analog videotape and on a counseling audiotape made for their course evaluation. Empathy ratings of their responses to the analog videotape correlated .61 (p < .001) with moral development scores and .35 (p < .05) with supervisory empathy ratings of their final audiotape and moral development scores. Implications for counselor education are discussed.     

Integrating Counseling Theory and Practice: Searching for F.A.C.T.S. and C.R.A.C.K.S.

This article suggests a device that counselors may use as a reference for bridging the gap between counseling theory and technique. Cognitive development theory provides the basis for understanding a single transaction between counselor and client. The acronyms FACTS and CRACKS suggest the structural dynamics taking place within the client's cognitive field as the counselor performs in two different stages of the counseling process.     

CLIENT 1: A Computer Simulation for Use in Counselor Education and Research

CLIENT 1 is an interactive program that was designed to simulate client behavior in an initial interview and to provide a standardized environment for training and research on counselor problem-solving strategies. Through interaction with the computerized client, counselors attempt to facilitate client movement toward the goal of verbalizing a specific problem statement. Client movement is a function of the appropriateness and accuracy of counselor statements, the threat value associated with both client and counselor statements, the strength of the relationship between the counselor and client, and an index of counselor expertise. The uses of the simulation in counselor education and research are discussed.