Psychotherapy supervision: A survey of internship training practices.

Abstract

A survey of 151 American Psychological Association-approved predoctoral internship programs shows a ratio of 3 hours of psychotherapy provided by interns to 1 hour of supervision received by the intern. The intern received 4.25 hours of supervision per week, and the supervisory staff provided 3.76 hours of supervision per week. One-to-one supervision remains the predominant supervisory modality. Supervision was considered part of the job, not something to be specifically rewarded. No specific and direct evaluation procedures to assess supervision quality were available. One third of the facilities reported that they provided training in supervision for interns. Programs can be characterized as "open" (accepting other than graduate psychology interns) or "closed" and more intensive (low service supervision) or less intensive in providing supervision. The dimensions of openness and intensity were related to the types and amounts of supervision provided.Presently, about 1,500 doctoral clinical students serve an internship each year (Stedman et al., 1981). Although the internship is central to professional training in psychology, little information is available on the extent and nature of psychotherapy supervision provided to interns. Such information would help administrators and professional staff at internship sites to plan internships. It would also help potential interns in their selection of internship sites.To provide such data on psychotherapy training during internships, we conducted a survey of the American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited predoctoral internship programs. Specific foci were (a) amount of supervision, (b) types of supervision provided, (c) training level and experiences of supervisors, (d) quality control or monitoring of supervision, and (e) training in supervision per se provided by the internship.

The Relationship Between Multicultural Counseling Training and the Evaluation of Culturally Sensitive and Culturally Insensitive Counselors

“…that some professionals who are currently in the role of supervisor have received limited, if any, multicultural counseling training (Lloyd, 1987), and that many have not received training in supervision (Hess & Hess, 1983;McColley & Baker, 1982). it seems critical to consider the study of such dyads as a topic for future research.…”

4/ Growth in Supervision:

“…Yet these latter activities are prominently featured in virtually all graduate school curricula while supervisory training is offered in some 14% of graduate psychology programs. Hess and Hess (1983) report one-third of clinical psychology internships offer supervisory training, and remarkably some one third of the facilities surveyed have their interns providing supervision to others with no supervision of their rendering of this service. Perhaps a telling commentary in the area of supervision is that 24 respondents believed supervision of one's psychotherapy to be important in developing supervisors, while 19 directors of training saw supervision of supervision as important.…”

“…The trainee moves to new settings (internships, new job positions) solidifying skills and extending one's professional identity, since the student is no longer seen as a student in the new setting. Instead he or she is seen as at least somewhat skilled, and may be given supervisory responsibilities on internships (Hess and Hess, 1983), and as a faculty member. These responsibilities can bring anxieties, which will be discussed in a subsequent section.…”

Psychology Supervisors' Training, Experiences, Supervisory Evaluation and Self-Rated Competence

“…It is the most prevalent technique in training clinical psychologists (Newman, Kopta, McGovern, Howard, & McNeilly, 1988). Individual supervision is the predominant training modality in APA-accredited internships (Hess & Hess, 1983). The need for training to include extensive supervised experience has been well documented (Garfield & Kurtz, 1976).…”

“…Even a recent survey of clinical psychology training directors excluded supervision as an area for training (Steinpreis, Queen, & Tennen, 1992). Little formal training for supervision is usually provided in advance of when supervisors assume supervisory responsibilities (Hess, 1986;Hess & Hess, 1983;Loganbill, Hardy, & Delworth, 1982;McCarthy, DeBell, Kanuha, & McLeod, 1988;McColley & Baker, 1982;Norcross, Prochaska, & Gallagher, 1989b). The lack of dedicated, formal, and standardized training in supervision seems likely to result in variability in how supervisors function.…”