Application: Identifying the Impact of the Working Alliance

In supervision situations, most of your supervisees will not yet be expert counselors and will be entering the supervision relationship with trepidation about expectations and how they will be evaluated. Counseling supervisors must first establish a strong supervisory alliance that will support counselors in self-examining and developing their skills, before assessing the supervisee’s skill levels. One of the central goals of any clinical supervision practice is to create a trusting environment in which supervisees feel safe discussing counseling challenges and enhancing their skills and competence (Carifio & Hess, 1987).

To prepare for this assignment:

•Review the “Supervisory Session” on the course DVD, paying particular attention to Drs. Chang and Wilkinson’s supervisory session and their working alliance.

•Review Chapter 3 in Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision. Focus on aspects of the working alliance while reflecting on your practicum telesupervision calls. Note which aspects of the working alliance may or may not be developing in these calls.

•Review this week’s assigned journal articles, thinking about supervisory styles as you reflect on your practicum telesupervision calls. Consider the impact of your supervisory style on your supervisees’ development.

•Think about how your own supervision work, at this point in the term, is reflective of a supervisory working alliance.

The assignment: (4–5 pages)

Submit an evaluation of your own practicum supervisory work as it relates to aspects of the working alliance.

•Evaluate how aspects of the working alliance have affected your supervisees up to this point in the course. Explain how supervisory style (e.g., “attractive” or “task-oriented”) can affect supervisee self-efficacy and note specific styles of supervision that were evident during the practicum call you attended.

•Evaluate how the working alliance and supervisory style influenced anxiety levels in your supervisees. For example, how was trust and self-disclosure evident during your practicum call this week? What happened when the supervisor responded in a specific manner to an anxious supervisee? In turn, how did the supervisee respond to the supervisor?

•In reflection, if you could rewind this week’s practicum call, what would you change? How would you, as a supervisor, make this change?

Support your Application Assignment, citing all resources in APA style, including those in the Learning Resources.