Identifying Ruptures and Repairs in Alliance-Focused Training Group Supervision

Group supervision presents unique opportunities for psychotherapy trainees to deepen their understanding of alliance ruptures and repair strategies. Trainees can explore challenging clinical moments and benefit from diverse perspectives and support. Group supervision also provides trainees with multiple opportunities to experience ruptures and repairs firsthand in their interactions with the supervisor and other group members. More research, particularly research using observer-based methods, would enhance our knowledge of rupture and repair processes in group supervision. In this study, seven sessions of Alliance-Focused Training, a group supervision that specifically aims to improve trainees' abilities to recognize and negotiate ruptures, were coded for alliance rupture markers and repair strategies using a modified version of the Rupture Resolution Rating System (3RS). Excerpts of the coded sessions were used to illustrate AFT process in the absence of ruptures, and in the context of ruptures between the supervisor and trainees, between trainees, and between a trainee and the group. There were no clear examples of ruptures between trainees. The ruptures between the supervisor and the trainees were deemed to have only a minor impact on the alliance, and these minor ruptures were at least partly addressed. Based on the coding, themes related to supervisor authority, complex and subtle ruptures, and the use of metacommunication within the AFT group were discussed. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that the 3RS can be useful for measuring process in group supervision, and that greater attention to group process and ruptures within the group holds promise for enhancing the effectiveness of AFT.

The Contribution of Group Supervision Processes to the Formation of Professional Identity among Novice Psychotherapists

Group supervision is a commonly employed method in graduate psychology training. The present study examines the role of group processes in the formation of professional identity among 129 Israeli graduate students following the conclusion of their supervision process. The following three identity statuses were identified: achievement, diffusion, and moratorium. Working alliance and group engagement were significantly higher for achievement students and differentiated between achievement and moratorium students. Cohesion was significantly lower for moratorium students than for students at each of the other two identity statuses. All differences were maintained when controlling for anxiety. Finally, working alliance was found to be the dominant process in predicting committed professional identity status. The findings stress the links between group processes in group supervision and a committed professional identity.

Defensive patterns in reflective group supervisions at Child Health Centres

Reflective group supervision with infant healthcare workers has been described in several publications. It aims to enhance their ability to help distressed families, and to comprehend and relieve themselves of the distress that they encounter in such work. The ultimate aim has been formulated as an effort at increasing the professional's reflective function. The present article adds to the literature by applying an ego-psychological perspective on the group process and investigating defensive patterns in such supervisions. This approach includes a critical discussion of the place of the reflective function concept in psychoanalytic metapsychology. The article also suggests a Bionian perspective to account for skewed communicative patterns in groups, so-called basic assumptions. Some technical recommendations are provided on the frame in group supervision. They aim to disarm such defenses and facilitate the group participants' possibilities of understanding and thus helping their colleague's problematic relationship with the family. To illustrate the discussion, and to help readers form an image of the supervision process, brief detailed accounts of such work are submitted.

Effects of Anxiety on Novice Genetic Counseling Students' Experience of Supervised Clinical Rotations

Supervised clinical experiences with patients comprise a critical component of genetic counseling student education. Previous research has found genetic counseling students tend to be more anxiety prone than the general population, and anxiety related to supervision has been found in genetic counseling and related fields. The present study investigated how anxiety affects the experience of supervision for genetic counseling students. Second year genetic counseling students were invited to participate through email invitations distributed via training directors of the 33 programs accredited at the time of the study by the American Board of Genetic Counseling. An initial online survey contained the trait scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to estimate anxiety proneness in this population and an invitation to participate in a 45-minute semi-structured phone interview focusing on students' experiences of supervision during their clinical rotations. High and low trait anxiety groups were created using STAI scores, and the groups' interview responses were compared using consensual qualitative research methodology (CQR; Hill 2012). The high anxiety group was more likely to describe problematic supervisory relationships, appreciate the supervisor's ability to help them when they get stuck in sessions, and feel their anxiety had a negative effect on their performance in general and in supervision. Common themes included supervisors' balancing support and guidance, the importance of feedback, ego-centric responses, and supervisors as focal points. The results of the present study are largely consistent with current literature. Further research findings and research, practice, and training recommendations are provided.

An Investigation of Process Variables in Feminist Group Clinical Supervision

Using a qualitative research design, this study investigated how three supervision groups, each led by a counseling supervisor with a feminist theoretical orientation, understood process variables of feminist group supervision. Participants each completed one semi-structured individual interview and engaged in one of three respective focus groups to talk about their experiences in group supervision. Data from these interviews were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory; standards of trustworthiness were accounted for using multiple tools. A supervision model emerged from the data, representing various clusters of process variables that affected how the participants understood the process and outcome of their supervision experiences. Implications of the model on theory, research, practice, and advocacy are discussed.

Multicultural Clinical Supervision and Benchmarks

The purpose of this Major Contribution is to provide background knowledge and context for competency-based clinical supervision and to showcase a diversity of methodologically sound empirical approaches to study effective supervision, including multiculturally competent supervision, and comparative perspectives on supervision cross-culturally. The intent is to begin to provide the empirical data necessary to assist the supervisor in supporting supervisees’ development of the benchmark competencies and to provide direction for future training of supervisors. Specifically, the articles in this major contribution address competencies in clinical supervision and the Competency Benchmarks on three pivotal topics: empirical support defining effective supervision, innovative empirically based approaches to cross-cultural and international supervision, and an empirical analysis of feminist supervision in a multiculturally diverse group context. Each of the articles addresses particular Competency Benchmarks and provides prototypical models of rigorous research procedures to inform the practice of multicultural supervision and training of supervisors, and implications.

Helpful and Hindering Multicultural Events in Group Supervision

This study examines the relationship between multicultural events in group supervision, group climate, and supervisee multicultural competence using a mixed qualitative/quantitative design. The discovery-oriented approach yielded 196 helpful and hindering multicultural events among 136 participants. The most common events included multicultural learning and peer vicarious learning. Supervisees suggested improving their group supervision through better integration of multicultural issues and more supervisor involvement. Regarding group climate, supervisees reporting peer vicarious learning or multicultural learning experienced higher group engagement, whereas misapplications of multicultural theory related to higher reports of group conflict. Increased multicultural learning and extra-group multicultural events positively related to supervisees' multicultural competence whereas multicultural conflicts with supervisors, misapplication of multicultural theory, and the absence of multicultural events negatively related to supervisee multicultural competence. The findings of this study generated several suggestions for managing multicultural events as well as improving theory, research, and practice for group supervision.