Mechanisms of Action in Clinical Supervision

What is it about?

Drawing on a sample of 13 supervisors, 32 trainees, and 256 clients from a training clinic, the present study examined the impact of several important relational and personal factors on the supervision process. The different variables that were assessed included client outcome, both supervisee and supervisor emotional intelligence, supervision alliance perceptions, and personality factors. In an initial effort to apply a leadership perspective to supervision, the Leader–Member Exchange Scale was adapted for use as an alternate alliance measure and appeared to hold measurement promise. Contrary to expectation, supervisor agreeableness was inversely related to and predictive of client outcomes: Client outcome was better when low supervisor agreeableness was present. Trainee extraversion and openness to experience predicted significant variance in leader–member exchange and supervisory working alliance perceptions.

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Why is it important?

Our findings bring into focus the significant impact that personality variables can have upon supervision practice and suggest that a leadership perspective has some relevance for supervision study.