Supervisory experiences of trainees with disabilities: The good, the bad, and the realistic.

Abstract

Clinical trainees with disabilities often have unique training needs. These can include requiring adequate supervision in navigating disability disclosure with clients, responding to disability-related stigma and discrimination in professional contexts, and developing an identity as a therapist that respects potential disability-related limitations and maximizes the trainee's strengths. The ability of supervisors to address these needs can greatly impact the professional development of trainees with disabilities. The present article offers 3 de-identified supervision experiences encountered by trainees with disabilities in the context of a clinical psychology PhD program. We share both positive and negative supervision experiences, highlighting the effect these interactions have on trainee development, and offer suggestions for improved supervision of trainees with disabilities. Public Significance StatementPeople with disabilities are underrepresented in clinical training programs, and this may be in part because clinical trainees with disabilities may have unique training needs. Supervision has the potential to improve or interfere with the professional development of trainees with disabilities, depending on how well the supervisor addresses these training needs. This article discusses three examples of trainee experiences with supervisors and provides suggestions for improving supervision of trainees with disabilities.

Left wanting: Desired but unaccessed resources among health service psychology trainees with disabilities.

“…The theme regarding the desirability of mentorship and support is also in line with the findings of prior studies, where mentorship and peer support were noted as significantly positive when available to trainees with disabilities (Lund et al, 2016(Lund et al, , 2019. Our findings also align with conceptual and theoretical work on this topic, which notes lack of access to accommodations (Hauser et al, 2000), faculty and supervisor attitudinal barriers and knowledge gaps (Andrews et al, 2013;Daughtry, Gibson, & Abels, 2009;Lund et al 2020;Taube & Olkin, 2011;Pearlstein & Soyster, 2019), and the frequent lack of truly disability-affirmative approaches to disability in psychology (Andrews et al, 2013(Andrews et al, , 2019Lund et al, 2020;Olkin, 2002) as barriers to trainees and psychologists with disabilities.…”

“…Thus, it is important to consider the possibility that our research may not directly align with the experiences of trainees with disabilities who are currently enrolled in programs. However, research and writing on trainees with disabilities suggests that the barriers and experiences of trainees with disabilities are slow to change (APA, 2009; Hauser et al, 2000; Joshi, 2006; Taube & Olkin, 2011; Pearlstein & Soyster, 2019) and that persistent barriers remain for trainees with disabilities in health service psychology (Andrews et al, 2019; Callahan et al, 2018). Similarly, some respondents completed their training over previous decades, so the resources available to them might have different, especially in terms of assistive technology.…”

“…For example, Newman and Madaus (2015) found that less than 50% of students with disabilities inform their institution of their disability and even fewer receive accommodations. Requesting accommodations requires individuals to disclose their disability, potentially putting the student at risk for real or anticipated prejudice and discrimination (Pearlstein & Soyster, 2019). Graduate students with disabilities may be hesitant to disclose their disability due to fear of being labeled (Jacklin, 2011), stigma and discrimination (Cole & Cawthon, 2015; Jones & Brown, 2013; Lund, Andrews, & Holt, 2014, 2016; Pearlstein & Soyster, 2019), and because they believe that faculty are uninformed about the effects of disability (Erten, 2011).…”

Supervisee perspectives on supervision processes: An introduction to the special issue.

“…Similarly, McKinley (2019), Port (2019), and Qi, Wang, Wu, and Luo (2019) describe the important role supervisors play in helping international trainees acculturate to the country they are now working in by examining the sociocultural context of the client and the supervisee. Finally, the critical role supervisors play in making accommodations, for supervisees with physical disabilities (Pearlstein & Soyster, 2019) and new mothers (Grassetti, Pereira, Hernandez, & Fritzges-White, 2019), is explored, with a focus on elucidating the negative impacts (Output in Figure 1) of supervisors questioning their supervisee’s ability to meet the demands of graduate training.…”

“…Many of the authors describe experiencing their supervisor(s) as having acted with prejudice and/or having microaggressed against them (Grassetti et al, 2019; Jendrusina & Martinez, 2019; McKinley, 2019; Patallo, 2019; Pearlstein & Soyster, 2019; Qi et al, 2019). Importantly, their experiences also revealed that supervisors who embraced cultural humility to explore the impact of supervisees’ intersectionality on their personal identity, professional identity (Thomas et al, 2019), and the power differentials within the supervisory triad (Blasini-Méndez, 2019; Hooley, 2019) facilitated more positive supervisee and clinical outcomes (Grassetti et al, 2019; Jendrusina & Martinez, 2019; McKinley, 2019; Patallo, 2019; Pearlstein & Soyster, 2019; Qi et al, 2019). Patallo (2019) provides illustrative examples and specific suggestions for supervisor development to incorporate cultural humility in supervisory relationships.…”