Group Supervision: Widely Practiced But Poorly Understood

Abstract

The group supervision literature in counselor training from 1960 to 1983 was reviewed. Only those articles pertaining to supervised groups of counselor trainees participating in individual counseling practica were included. Descriptions of group supervision included elements of case presentation, didactic information, and interpersonal process. Because of the paucity of research in group supervision, practices are based on intuitive common sense approaches.

Effective Supervision in Groups

“…Nevertheless, these findings are useful for four reasons. First, they support Holloway and Johnston's (1985) assertion that the current practice of group supervision is based on intuition and common sense. Second, and more important, the findings provide an empirical report of effective group supervision in one setting.…”

Structured group supervision: Theory into practice

“…That is, the SGS model provides a procedure for group supervision, rather than the frequent occurrence of one, primary supervisor who supervises trainees one at a time, in the context of a group meeting, while other group members passively observe this one-to-one interaction. Therefore, similar to Holloway and Johnston (1985). we believe group supervision, and the SGS model in particular, to be an effective use of available group time.…”

“…Preliminary research on the model's effectiveness is also discussed. Holloway and Johnston (1985) indicated that research on the use of group formats to provide counseling supervision has declined in the last 10 years and that recent models have focused primarily on one-to-one supervision. Yet, they also stated that group supervision is practiced widely and that it is considered to be an economical use of supervisory time.…”

“…Joseph R. Morris is an associate professor. and Robert L. Betz is a professor, both Johnston, 1985). The Structured Group Supervision (SGS) model attempts to strengthen the link between group supervision and its justified use in counselor training programs by providing a descriptive group model and initial, pilot study support of the model's effectiveness.…”

Group Supervision: A Review of Practices and Models in Training

“…field (Altfeld & Bernard, 1997;Borders, 1991;Carroll, 1996;Goodyear & Nelson, 1997;Holloway & Johnston, 1985;Proctor, 2000;Prieto, 1996Prieto, , 1998Proctor & Inskipp, 2001;Riva & Cornish, 1995;Stoltenberg, McNeill, & Delworth, 1998). Despite its wide use, few supervisors have received adequate training in group supervision techniques and practices.…”