Family Therapy Supervisors Research Articles

Zooming into Feminist Family Therapy Telesupervision: Experiences of Supervisors during the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way feminist clinical supervisors provide supervision to family therapist trainees. This study explored the experiences of feminist family therapy supervisors who engaged in supervision remotely or had transitioned to virtual supervision. Using thematic analysis, four themes emerged from analysis of eight supervisors’ answers to an online survey: using technology as a collaborative medium, self-of-the-supervisor process, intentional supervisory relationship, and supervisor responsibilities. In telling their stories, the supervisors described how they pivoted to support therapists, attended to parallel processes, and adjusted their own supervision techniques to maintain their feminist focus. The authors discuss implications of supervision adjustments and offer suggestions and considerations for remote feminist supervision and recommendations for future research.

Family Therapy Supervision in Action

There is a growing body of research, as the psychodrama community has understood for some time, that supports the idea that our bodies have their own intelligence and that insight can come from action. By working nonverbally using sculpting and other psychodramatic methods in family therapy supervision, we as family therapy supervisors, have found that clinicians are able to overcome therapeutic impasse with clients when they work through difficulties using insights that come from the body and action. This article describes our method and provides clinical examples of its effectiveness working with couples and families.

A Guide for Beginning Family Therapy Group Supervisors

A model for group supervision is presented to guide beginning family therapy supervisors. The stages of the model include: 1) Checking in; 2) Case Presentation; 3) Questions from the Audience; 4) Video Review; 5) Commentator Reflections; 6) Audience Reflections; and 7) Post-supervision Supervisor Reflections. One student's perspective on the usefulness of the model is provided.

Methods of feminist family therapy supervision.

Although feminist family therapy has been studied and practiced for more than 20 years, writing about feminist supervision in family therapy has been limited. Three supervision methods emerged from a qualitative study of the experiences of feminist family therapy supervisors and the therapists they supervised: The supervision contract, collaborative methods, and hierarchical methods. In addition to a description of the participants' experiences of these methods, we discuss their fit with previous theoretical descriptions of feminist supervision and offer suggestions for future research.

CROSS-CULTURAL SUPERVISION IN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the various cultural factors that influence the supervisor-trainee relationship when at least one of these individuals is a member of an ethnic minority group in the United States. Marriage and Family Therapy supervisors and students were asked to compare and contrast their experiences working with ethnic minority and white persons. Findings indicate that both supervisors and students express great value in cross-cultural supervisory experiences, but report that these opportunities are very limited.

Live supervision in family therapy: Qualitative interviews of supervision events as perceived by supervisors and supervisees

Abstract Qualitative interviews were conducted with family therapy supervisors and their supervisees to underst and how they perceived their experiences in live supervision. Supervisor and supervisees described helpful supervision experiences that were related to the supervisees' development as therapists. The primary categories of helpful supervision experiences were Support, Teach/Direct, and Collaboration. However, the findings indicate that these categories of experiences held different importance for supervisors than they did for supervisees. Implications for supervision practive are discussed.

A TOOL FOR TRAINING SUPERVISORS: USING THE SUPERVISION FEEDBACK FORM (SFF)

As the field of supervision and training has evolved, there has been a growing recognition of and appreciation for the skills required to be an effective supervisor or trainer (Liddle, Breunlin, & Schwartz, 1988). This new awareness has pointed to the need for effective methods and tools for training family therapy supervisors. One of the tools I developed to improve my supervision complete to give me feedback on my supervision. This article describes how developing and using an SFF was valuable to me in my training as a supervisor. Based on my experience, I believe the SFF could be a useful tool in training other supervisors.

Using the Phone-In Procedure

This study surveyed marriage and family therapy supervisors in counselor preparation programs. The study investigated a component of live supervision; that is, the phone-in procedure. Supervisors were asked to read a supervision case and then select the most appropriate phone-in response from five distractors. Supervisory phone-in responses were developed from recommendations found in the literature. After reviewing findings from this study, it was suggested that having received supervision while using the phone-in improved the likelihood of selecting the most appropriate response. It was therefore suggested that those planning to use live supervision and the phone-in procedure consider obtaining supervision of their supervision.

Gender in family therapy supervision

While gender has taken its place as a fundamental construct in family therapy theory, little has been written about gender in family therapy supervision. This paper attempts to redefine gender as it pertains to families, family therapy, and family therapy supervision; call attention to aspects of gender as they apply to training in family therapy and family therapy supervision; and suggest ways that family therapy supervisors can sensitize themselves to issues of gender so that they can be more effective in supervision.

TRAINING FAMILY THERAPY SUPERVISORS: ISSUES OF CONTENT, FORM AND CONTEXT*

This paper describes a program designed to train advanced family therapists in the conceptual and technical skills of family therapy supervision. It elaborates upon the relevant content, overall organization, and contextual influences in the complex enterprise of training family therapy supervisors in a program that emphasizes the live observation of the supervisor‐trainee's work. Through the description of the interconnected elements of a particular program, the paper also identifies generic training issues for those interested in teaching the skills of family therapy supervision.