DIGEST - Volume 11, Issue 1

1 TPC Digest n general, counseling programs offer curricula that assist students with progressing from classroom experiences to fieldwork with actual clients. As counseling students transition from didactic to field experience courses, they often experience formal clinical supervision for the first time, particularly during their first counseling practicum courses. Because counseling practicum students are new to supervision, they rely heavily on their supervisors to provide direction and structure in supervision experiences. In turn, this structure and direction is thought to help supervisees grow professionally and personally. However, supervisees may not benefit solely from supervisor-centric perspectives. In fact, supervisees with significant professional and personal experiences may need more room to contribute their own views and to question their supervisors’ structured approach to clinical supervision, a phenomenon aligning with what we know about non-traditional and adult learning processes. Despite the preponderance of supervisor perspectives present in best practice documents, standards, and the counseling supervision literature, little is known about how supervisees, in general, view their roles. Still less is known about the perspectives of those new to clinical supervision on their roles as supervisees. We believe that obtaining counseling practicum supervisees’ views is critical to the supervision process; specifically, that supervisors can benefit from structuring and delivering their courses informed by new supervisees’ perspectives on their roles. We maintain that supervisees’ first supervision experiences can set the tone for their subsequent supervision experiences in terms of their levels of preparation, participation, and disclosure, among other things. We have found in the literature and in our own experience that a “top-down” supervisor-centric perspective offers supervisors advantages for providing and monitoring structure and adherence to that structure, for establishing ground rules, and for determining evaluation criteria. However, supervisors are at a disadvantage if their direction and structure lack consideration of supervisees’ perspectives, which we believe is especially true for counseling practicum supervisees, who are just beginning their supervision journeys. Accordingly, we conducted a Q methodology study with a purposeful sample of students engaged in their first semester of practicum and their instructors, all of whom comprised a case exemplar within a single counseling practicum course. Our findings suggest three supervisee viewpoints on supervisee roles, which we termed Dutiful, Discerning, and Expressive Learners. The Dutiful Learner viewpoint suggest the importance of adhering to ethical guidelines and supervisor and program structures, whereas the Discerning Learner viewpoint preferred well-reasoned feedback in the spirit of developing counseling skills. Finally, the Expressive Learner viewpoint favored the freedom to express learning needs with ample opportunities to be vulnerable without fear of recourse from supervisors. Overall, our findings provide counselor education practicum instructors with data-supported views on how to obtain and incorporate counseling practicum supervisees into their course design and delivery (i.e., training supervision in a small group setting). Specifically, practicum instructors are encouraged to include both supervisor and supervisee perspectives to support optimal learning and the development of a quality supervision relationship. Future research can identify, compare, and contrast counselor practicum supervisees’ views within multiple courses across programs. Eric R. Baltrinic, PhD, LPCC-S (OH), is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama. Ryan M. Cook, PhD, ACS, LPC, is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama. Heather J. Fye, PhD, NCC, LPC, is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama. Correspondence may be addressed to Eric R. Baltrinic, The University of Alabama, Box 870231, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, erbaltrinic@ua.edu. I Eric R. Baltrinic, Ryan M. Cook, Heather J. Fye 1 | i t A Q Methodology Study of Supervisee Roles Within a Counseling Practicum Course