The supervisory needs of neophyte psychotherapy trainees

Abstract

This article focuses on the difficulties facing the neophyte trainee in the field of psychotherapy. Three areas of such difficulties are identified, defined, and discussed: feelings of inadequacy and incompetence, anxieties concerning supervisors, and confusion concerning multiple theoretical views of clinical work. Two vignettes from the early training of the paper's junior authors illustrate and discuss these problems and their resolution in applied contexts. A conclusion is offered which emphasizes the value of supervisory recognition of these dimensions of trainees' experience, as well as their potential for modeling processes of growth that are likely to help supervisees' patients as well. 0 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Much has been written about the process of learning and teaching psychotherapy (see Robiner & Schofield, 1990, for a good bibliography of recent literature), and the situation of the early learner in this field has been scrutinized from several points of view. Nelson ( 1978), for example, surveyed trainee preferences concerning supervisors via questionnaires, and a similar study by Worthington and Roehlke (1979) used rating scales to record the degree to which supervisees saw their supervisors as having functioned consonant with the supervisory behaviors the supervisors had themselves rated as important. Chessick (197 1) presented an interesting discussion of the supervisory process that considers the motivations and needs of both participants. Martin, Goodyear, and Newton (1987) used a single case study approach blended with quantitative data to demonstrate that supervisory sessions deemed "best" seem to focus on the relationship between the two participants. Glass (1986) considered the controversies surrounding the merits of involvement in personal therapy by neophyte practitioners in a psychiatric residency setting. Duryee ( 1992) has shown that teaching in non-clinical contexts has many growth producing aspects that parallel the dimensions of formal psychotherapy.In this article, we present a discussion of several issues involved in the training of psychotherapists. We approach this issue in what we hope is a novel and useful format, namely that of offering the joint perspectives of neophyte practitioners and one seasoned clinician focused on three key concerns of the typical beginner. These are 1.2. Anxieties concerning supervisors, and 3. Feelings of inadequacy and incompetence,Confusion regarding the multiplicity of disparate viewpoints on psychopathology and psychotherapy in the general field of mental health.In the first section of this paper, these three concerns will be defined and elaborated in the context of some background considerations. Subsequently, two therapy cases from the caseload of two first-time enrollees in a psychotherapy practicum are presented in specific reference to these issues. Finally, we offer some conclusions concerning the learning and teaching of psychotherapy which we hope will be of use to both trainers and trainees in their collaborative undertaking.

A Common Factors View of Counseling Supervision Process

“…These findings are confirmed by research (e.g., Duryee, Brymer, & Gold, 1996) and are part of the first stages of various developmental models of supervision. The supervisee's tension has many causes and sources at that point, one of them being lack of knowledge about counseling in general.…”