“It’s essential”: practicum supervisees’ emotion regulation challenges and their doctoral supervisors’ responses

ABSTRACT

Novice supervisees inevitably experience intense emotional challenges during their practicum experience. Their supervisors often must help them manage their emotional reactions, suggesting the relevance of emotion regulation (ER) theory to supervision practice. Five doctoral supervisors described examples of their counseling practicum supervisees’ client-based (e.g. countertransference, trauma-related responses) and supervision-based (e.g. constructive feedback) ER challenges and how they responded. Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) analysis revealed supervisors responded in line with process model of ER, including individualized other-focused and interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) strategies. Findings suggest further investigations could advance supervision research and practice as well as inform ER theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical supervision
• emotion regulation
• interpersonal emotion regulation
• trauma
• racial trauma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

L. DiAnne Borders

L. DiAnne Borders (she/her/hers), PhD, LCMHC, NCC, ACS, is an Excellence Professor in the counseling program at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches clinical supervision and supervises doctoral supervisors. She has published widely on clinical supervisor training and novice supervisors, with a current focus on emotion regulation and trauma-informed supervision. She co-founded the Clinical Supervision Research Collaborative.

Lindsey M. Grossman

Lindsey M. Grossman (she/her/hers), PhD, MHC-LP (NY), NCC, is an Assistant Professor in the clinical mental health counseling program at Touro University. She teaches counseling skills development and theory and supervises master’s-level interns. Her research is focused on counseling skill development, particularly, counselor self-disclosure.

Jaimie S. Cory

Jaimie S. Cory, MEd, LCMHC is a doctoral student at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and counselor in private practice specializing in working with survivors of severe, prolonged, and pervasive traumatic stress. Areas of academic interest include decolonization in mental health, abolitionism, transfeminism, relational psychoanalytic theory, innovative qualitative methods, and traumatology.

Caroline E. Trustey

Caroline E. Trustey (she/her/hers), PhD, LPC (DC), NCC, is a personal counselor at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School. She completed her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2022. Her research interests include strengths-based approaches to counseling and indicators of success in substance use counseling.

Brittany P. Gerringer

Brittany P. Gerringer (she/her/hers), PhD, LCMHCA, NCC, is an adjunct professor in the counseling program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches and provides clinical supervision for master’s and doctoral students. She is also a clinician at Three Birds Counseling and Clinical Supervision in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she sees clients across the lifespan for concerns related to disordered eating and body image. Her research interests include improving counselors-in-training’s use of body size-acceptance frameworks and emotion regulation in clinical supervision.

Jordan L. Austin

Jordan L. Austin is an Assistant Professor of Counseling in the School of Counseling and Human Services at Lenior-Rhyne University. Her research interests include counseling trainee development, clinical supervision, and emotional complexity and emotion regulation. In addition, she provides clinical services using a trauma- and attachment-informed lens to adults, couples, and families.