How can faculty in professional psychology programs become more intentional and effective mentors? Many psychology graduate students are never mentored, and very few psychologists have ever received training in the practice of mentoring. This article briefly summarizes the nature of mentoring, the prevalence of mentoring in psychology, primary obstacles to mentoring, and some ethical concerns unique to mentoring. The article provides several strategies to enhance mentoring and guidelines for the profession, departments of psychology, and individual psychologists who serve as mentors. This article is designed to help readers take a more deliberate approach to the practice of mentoring.

Mentor relationships play an important role in the development and promotion of professional identity among psychologists, yet empirical study of mentor-protégé relationships in psychology graduate education is nearly nonexistent. In this study, we provide a contemporary picture of mentor relationships in clinical psychology doctoral programs. We mailed a survey instrument regarding mentor relationships to 1,000 recent doctorates in clinical psychology; nearly 800 responded. Two thirds of respondents reported having a faculty mentor during graduate school. More PhDs reported having a mentor than PsyDs, as did graduates of university-based departments of psychology compared to graduates of schools of professional psychology. Men and women were equally likely to be mentored and to be satisfied with mentor relationships. Ninety-one percent of mentored graduates evaluated the mentor relationship positively, and mentored graduates were significantly more satisfied with their doctoral program. We discuss implications for graduate education.

Psychologists are ethically obligated to ensure their own competence. When problems of professional competence occur, psychologists must take appropriate steps to regain competence while protecting those they serve. Yet conceptualizations of the competence obligation are thoroughly intertwined with Western ideals of individualism and a model of the person as self-contained, self-controlled, and perpetually rational. Research in health care, education, and multicultural and social psychology raise serious doubts about psychologists' capacity for consistently accurate self-assessments of competence. To address this problem, the authors advocate that education, training, professional ethics standards, and credentialing criteria be infused with a robust communitarian ethos and a culturally pervasive ethic of care. The authors propose a shift in discourse about competence to incorporate both competent individuals and competent communities.

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Can a psychologist simultaneously fill the roles of clinical supervisor and mentor to a trainee? What are the implications of adding a mentoring component to a supervisory relationship? Like academic advising, supervision need not incorporate a mentoring function. However, the author hypothesizes that, all things considered, it is better for supervisees, and probably supervisors and training sites, too, when supervising psychologists engage supervisees in connected, collaborative, and increasingly reciprocal developmental relationships. There are numerous implications of mentoring-infused or transformational supervision, not the least of which is the inescapable tension between the supervisor's mentoring and evaluative roles. The author calls for concerted research and practice development in this area.