Supervisors' Use of Reinforcement, Reframing, and Advice to Re-Author the Supervisory Narrative through E-mail Supervision

Abstract

Discourse analysis was used to investigate the semester-long weekly e-mail communication between 38 counseling supervisees in their internship placements across school, clinical mental health, and student affairs placement settings and their three respective supervisors. Evidence of supervisor re-authorship of the supervisory narrative—the stories that constitute supervisory communication and shape the interpretation of experiences—was found throughout the e-mail communication in the forms of reinforcement and reframing. Researchers also identified a derivative of re-authorship that was termed as pre-authorship, taking place through advice giving. Findings are contextualized within the supervision, narrative, and discourse literatures, with implications for training, practice, and future research discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• e-mail supervision
• re-authorship
• supervisory narrative