Symposia
Dissemination & Implementation Science
Siena Tugendrajch, M.A.
University of Missouri-Columbia
Webster, New York
Jack Andrews, BS
Doctoral Student
University of Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Suh Jung "Rylee" Park, PhD
Doctoral Student
University of Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Tyler Smith, Ph.D
Senior Research Associate
University of Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Kristin Hawley, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO
Despite the often stated importance of clinical supervision, it is unclear whether empirical evidence supports recommended supervision practices. Research on supervision practices has been criticized for poor methodological rigor, including failure to operationalize supervision techniques, content, and training (Milne, 2007), or to examine meaningful supervisee or client outcomes (Watkins Jr., 2020). In the past decade, however, the formal inquiry of supervision processes, content, and outcomes has grown (e.g., Barrett, Gonsalvez, & Shires, 2019). The high demand for and limited access to effective mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic has also underscored the need for effective supervision and training to maximize the potential benefits of delivered mental health services. In the pandemic, supervisors must now also balance supporting therapists in competently responding to crisis situations while delivering evidence-based practices.
To work towards building an evidence base for recommended supervision elements, we identified 17 common supervision elements across professional supervision guidelines for psychologists, counselors, and social workers (Tugendrajch et al., 2021). We then conducted a systematic review of the supervision literature to evaluate the relationships between these 17 recommended supervision elements and meaningful supervisee outcomes (i.e., therapist fidelity, competence, & self-efficacy) from 28 studies with at least one supervision group containing at least one recommended supervision element. Hedges g effect sizes were calculated from pre- to post-supervision for 104 therapist fidelity, competence, & self-efficacy measures.
Preliminary results using robust variance estimation indicate that receiving supervision with at least one recommended supervision element in supervision significantly improved supervisee outcomes (g = 0.346, p = 0.019). The following elements were associated with better supervisee outcomes: formal supervisee evaluation, setting expectations, technological considerations, supervisor self-awareness of competence, goal setting, encouraging supervisee evaluation, and general feedback. Our results suggest that best practice supervision elements may be an important first step in extending the potential benefits of supervisions in times of high need. Gaps in existing supervision research and future directions for evaluating supervision will be discussed.