Relational discussions in theoretically diverse models of psychotherapy supervision: How common are they?

ABSTRACT

To investigate how expert supervisors focus on various aspects of relationships and how commonly the relational discussions occur in theoretically diverse approaches to supervision, we operationalized five relational supervisory behaviors (Focus on the Therapeutic Relationship, Focus on the Supervisory Alliance, Exploration of Feelings, Focus on Countertransference, Attend to Parallel Process) from the Critical Events model of supervision. Our observational analysis showed a modest-to-strong use of these five key behaviors across the 11 demonstration sessions in the American Psychological Association’s Master Supervision Video Series. Discussion focuses on using the results alongside the videos to train novice supervisors and the contribution of relational processes to supervision outcomes in future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Supervision theory
• supervisory alliance
• supervision relationship
• interpersonal behavior
• Critical Events model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

1. In our initial ratings of the 11 supervision videos, Focus on the Therapeutic Process was used extensively by all of the supervisors and thus had little discriminatory power. For this reason, we narrowed the meaning of this behavior and its operationalization to Focus on the Therapeutic Relationship (FTR). This change from “process” to “relationship” would exclude discussions on what happened during therapy session that are not necessarily about how the therapist and the client relate. After we re-rated all 11 videos with this modification, the ICC reliability for this behavior was improved, and there was more variability in the FTP ratings across videos.

2. Three raters were used when this behavior was re-rated after being conceptualized more narrowly.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mengfei Xu

Mengfei Xu (M.Ed., Beijing Normal University) is currently a doctoral student in the counseling psychology program at the University at Albany. He has worked as a clinical consultant and provided basic counseling skills training for master-level trainees in mental health counseling. His research interests include psychotherapy processes and outcomes, clinical supervision, and multicultural issues in therapy/supervision.

Myrna L. Friedlander

Myrna L. Friedlander (Ph.D., The Ohio State University) is currently a Professor in the University at Albany’s Division of Counseling Psychology. Dr. Friedlander has worked as a clinician, educator, supervisor, and consultant in a variety of schools, counseling centers, hospitals, and community agencies. Her current research concerns therapeutic change processes in psychotherapy and the process of clinical supervision. Over the past 20 years, she became a Fellow in three Divisions of the American Psychological Association and was honored with the University at Albany’s Excellence in Research award, a Lifetime Contribution Award from the Section for the Promotion of Psychotherapy Science (Society for Counseling Psychology, APA), and a Distinguished Family Systems Research Award from the American Family Therapy Academy.

Valerie Kontakos

Valerie Kontakos (M.S., University at Albany) is a family therapy clinician at Northern Rivers Family services, serving families that have Child Protective Services involvement. Valerie has primarily worked providing counseling to adults with developmental disabilities before switching over to family counseling in December 2019.

Katharine S. Shaffer

Katharine S. Shaffer (Ph.D., University at Albany) is an assistant professor in the Counseling Psychology concentration of the Division of Applied Behavioral Sciences at the University of Baltimore. She has worked in a variety of clinical settings and modalities, provided individual and group supervision to graduate-level trainees in psychology and counseling, and consulted with community partners on matters related to research, assessment, and clinical training. Her research interests include clinical supervision, multicultural education and multicultural clinical/supervisory competency, and therapy processes and outcomes. She is a recipient of the University of Baltimore’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award, and a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and Division 17 of the APA (Society of Counseling Psychology).