Supervisees’ perspectives on countertransference-focused practices and processes in clinical supervision: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

This study examined 78 counseling and psychology supervisees’ perceptions of supervision practices and processes focused on identifying and managing countertransference (CT). They reported that most supervisors paid some attention to CT. They (a) rated supervisors who neglected it entirely as lower on effectiveness and (b) rated supervisory alliance higher when CT was addressed in at least 50% of the sessions. The study also categorized respondents’ reports of (a) what cues had signaled a CT event to them (12 categories: clustered into those concerning feelings, cognitions, and in-therapy behaviors) and (b) how their supervisors had responded to that event (seven categories).

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical supervision
• countertransference
• identifying countertransference
• supervisor response to supervisee countertransfernece

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rodney K. Goodyear

Rod Goodyear, Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor of Counseling Psychology, University of Southern California and Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Redlands. A major theme of his scholarship has been supervision and training of counselors and psychologists and with Janine Bernard, is coauthor of Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision, which now is in its sixth edition (and is in Chinese translation). Rod was a member of the American Psychological Associations’ (APA) task group that developed the Association’s clinical supervision guidelines. He was the 2015 President of the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy and has received both APA’s 2015 award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Education and Training, and the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy’s 2018 Distinguished Award for the International Advancement of Psychotherapy. Since 2015, he has taught – and learned from – over 700 Chinese supervisors in a program sponsored by the Chinese Psychological Society’s Clinical and Counseling Psychology Registration System.

Hideko Sera

Hideko Sera, PsyD, is director of Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at Morehouse College, the nation’s only HBCU liberal arts college dedicated to Black men and men of color. As a bilingual and bicultural female faculty and administrator of color, she has provided education, training, and management of health disparities and mental health access/resources, educational justice, and social justice advocacy for BIPOC communities over twenty years in higher education (undergraduate and graduate). Sera is a recipient of the Cynthia D. Belar Education Advocacy Distinguished Service Award and 2021 APA Presidential Citation specifically for her work with minoritized students and communities. As a selected member of the APA Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology (LIWP), a Fellow of the American Conference of Academic Deans, and an advisory board member of the New Leadership Academy Fellows Program at the University of Utah, Sera has been an active voice in higher education to garner support and solutions for challenges faced by BIPOC students, faculty, and staff. Sera has presented nationally and internationally and published in psychology and higher education on clinical supervision, mentorship and mentoring relationships, and antiracism. She is currently serving the second term on the APA Board of Educational Affairs. One of her current initiatives, funded by CDC, is a collaboration with the Morehouse School of Medicine on HIV/AIDS early detection and stigma management of diagnoses for Black male college students.