Counselor-in-Training Perceptions of Supervision Practices Related to Self-Care and Burnout

Abstract

Counselor supervision is designed to facilitate the ethical, academic, personal, and professional development of counselors-in-training. Bolstering counselor resilience in an effort to prevent burnout is one aspect of facilitating ethical, personal, and professional development. Supervisors who work closely with counselors-in-training during their practicum and internship can promote the hardiness and sustainability of counselors-in-training by helping them learn to self-assess in order to recognize personal needs and assert themselves accordingly. This qualitative study investigated counselor-in-training perceptions of self-care, burnout, and supervision practices related to promoting counselor resilience. The consensual qualitative research method (CQR) was used to explore the supervision experiences of 14 master’s level counselors-in-training enrolled from three separate universities. The primary research questions that guided this qualitative study included: (a) What are master’s level counselors-in-training’s perceptions of counselor burnout? (b) What are master’s level counselors-in-training’s perceptions of self-care? (c) What, if anything, have master’s level counselors-in-training learned about counselor burnout in their supervision experiences? and, (d) What, if anything, have master’s level counselors-in-training learned about self-care within the supervision experience? Findings from this study highlight the importance of the role of supervision in promoting resilience as a protective factor against burnout among counselors-in-training. The majority of participants in this study perceived that they experienced some degree of burnout in their experiences as counselors-in-training. Participants reported an appreciation for supervision experiences in which their supervisors provided direct feedback and positive reinforcement, and reported a desire for supervisors to place a greater emphasis on life-work balance and learning to cope with stress. Participants also expressed a need to be more informed about additional stressors in graduate school such as administrative tasks in internship, preparing for graduate school comprehensive exams, and how to search for professional counselor employment. In contrast to research literature, participants did not perceive that their supervisors directly addressed their degree of personal commitment to their clients’ counseling outcome, or elusive measures of success in counseling. Counselor supervisors should discuss the definitions of burnout, how burnout is dif ferent from stress, how to identity early signs of burnout, and how to address burnout symptoms in order to promote wellness and prevent burnout in counselors-in-training. Moreover, discussions in supervision about the potential for emotional exhaustion, the counselorin-training’s degree of emotional investment in client outcomes, elusive measures of success in counseling, coping skills for managing stress, meaning-making and sources of inspiration, and personalized self-care activities are several ways supervisors can promote counselor resilience and sustainability. Digest from: Thompson, E. H., Frick, M. H., & Trice-Black, S. (2011). Counselor-in-training perceptions of supervision practices related to self-care and burnout. The Professional Counselor, 1, 152-162.