A collaboration to develop Chinese supervision capacity: the professional context, the model, and lessons learned

ABSTRACT

To develop a more competent clinical supervision workforce, the Chinese clinical and counseling psychology leadership in 2015 formed a collaboration that included two Chinese professional organizations and three US psychologists. The authors describe the context for this collaboration and the resulting program, which has now trained more than 600 supervisors. We describe ways in which program content and pedagogy continually are being adapted to better ensure relevance to a Chinese audience. We also discuss the collaboration itself, including implications for those who might want to participate in a similar, cross-national collaboration.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical supervision
• Chinese clinical and counseling psychology
• Chinese clinical supervision
• international collaborations

Disclosure statement

Several of the authors receive stipends for their participation in the supervision training; others are leadership positions at the two sponsoring oragnizations (Hubei Oriental Insight Mental Health Institute and the Clinical and Counseling Psychology Registration System).

Notes

1. Note that the CCPRS title (注册心理师) translates most accurately to “registered psychology-er, ” and so for simplicity the term “registered therapist” is used in this paper.

2. Changming Duan (University of Kansas), Dong Xie (University of Central Arkansas), Mei Tang (University of Cincinnati), Naijian Zhang (West Chester University), Yuhong He (University of Missouri, Columbia), Yuping Huang (Private Practice), Zhengzong Cai (University of California, Irvine), Yi Yang (Private Practice), Lidan Gu (Hennepin County Medical Center), Xuhua Qin (Private Practice), Huan-Chung Liu (private practice), Huaizhong Liu (University of Iowa).

3. Special appreciations are due Changming Duan, Xiubin Lin, and Dan Li (Lily).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rodney K. Goodyear

Rodney K. Goodyear is an emeritus professor at both the University of Southern California (counseling psychology) and University of Redlands. A major theme of his scholarship has concerned the supervision and training of psychologists and counselors. During the past decade, his attention increasingly has turned to work done in collaboration with colleagues in other countries. He received the 2015 Distinguished Career Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology Award from APA and in 2018 received the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy’s Distinguished Award for the International Advancement of Psychotherapy.

Changming Duan

Changming Duan is a licensed psychologist and professor of counseling psychology at University of Kansas. She received her Ph.D. in counseling and social psychology from the University of Maryland. Her professional interests include addressing multicultural issues in counseling and supervision practice and training and using strength-based approaches to promote psychological healing and growth.

Carol Falender

Carol Falender, Ph.D., is coauthor or co-editor of multiple books on clinical supervision, including Clinical Supervision: A Competency-based Approach (2nd ed.) (2021) with Edward Shafranske, one on consultation. Dr. Falender has also written articles and conducted workshops and symposia in the U.S. and internationally. She directed American Psychological Association (APA) accredited internship programs for over 20 years, was a member of the Supervision Guidelines Group of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB), and chaired the Supervision Guidelines Task Force of APA. Dr. Falender is a Fellow of APA (Divisions 29, 37, 43), Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University, and Clinical Professor in the UCLA Psychology Department. She received the 2018 Distinguished Career Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology Award from APA.

Xiubin Lin

Xiubin Lin, whose Ph.D. is in clinical and counseling psychology, is the Executive Director of Hubei Oriental Insight Mental Health Institute (OI) in Wuhan, China. The OI’s primary mission is to provide high-quality training to mental health students and practitioners, though OI also has research and clinical service missions. One of OI’s more prominent programs is a year-long, systematic program to train Chinese clinicians in competency based clinical supervision. Dr. Lin now is working with her OI colleagues to developing a training program to help Chinese practitioners develop and run their own practices. Her major research interests concern the process and outcome of psychotherapy, clinical supervision, and deliberate practice in training.

Xiaoming Jia

Xiaoming Jia is a professor of psychology in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Beijing Institute of Technology. She is currently a committee member of the Chinese Psychological Society, the Chair of the Clinical and Counseling Psychology Registration Work Committee of the Chinese Psychological Society (known as the Registration System), and Vice Chair of the Division of Psychoanalytic of the Chinese Association of Mental Health. She is also the Vice Chair of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the Chinese Association of Mental Health, and the committee member of the Chinese Association of Marriage and Family. Her research interests include theories and approaches of psychological counseling, counseling ethics, counseling in universities, grief counseling, and cultural issues in counseling.

Guangrong Jiang

Guangrong Jiang, Ph.D., is an emeritus professor at Central China Normal University and founder of the Hubei Oriental Insight Mental Health Institute. He was a pioneer and remains a leading voice in Chinese counseling and psychotherapy, with a more recent focus on the indigenization of psychotherapy in China, identifying themes connecting Western psychotherapy theories with Chinese culture. He actively explores and integrates overseas professional resources and promotes international cooperation and communication in the field of psychotherapy so that the world can enjoy the humanistic spirit of oriental culture and give full play to the influence of indigenous psychology in the world. He is a recipient of the 2022 Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy’s Distinguished Award for the International Advancement of Psychotherapy

Mingyi Qian

Mingyi Qian, Ph.D., is emeritus professor of clinical psychology at Peking University. She was instrumental in developing the first edition of the Chinese Psychological Society’s ethics code and pioneered in implementing an ethics curriculum in Chinese clinical and counseling psychology graduate programs. As well, she was one of the inaugural leaders in Division of the Clinical Psychology Registration Work Committee and was one of the first Registered Supervisors in CCPRS. She is currently a Council member of the Chinese Psychological Society (CPS), Vice Chair of the Division of the Clinical Psychology Registration Work Committee, Fellow of the World Council for Psychotherapy (WCP), and Fellow of Chinese Psychological Society (CPS). Her research has focused on ethics in clinical psychology, internet based cognitive behavioral therapy, and social anxiety.