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Career‐long supervision: Patterns and perspectives
Author(s) -
Grant Jan,
Schofield Margot
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
counselling and psychotherapy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.38
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1746-1405
pISSN - 1473-3145
DOI - 10.1080/14733140601140899
Subject(s) - workforce , context (archaeology) , clinical supervision , psychology , logistic regression , medicine , nursing , clinical psychology , medical education , psychotherapist , paleontology , economics , biology , economic growth
Abstract The counselling/psychotherapy profession is relatively unique in its tradition of ongoing supervision of practising professionals after training has been completed. However, it is unclear whether most counselling and psychotherapy professionals continue with supervision once they have qualified, and what kinds of factors are associated with this decision. This research describes factors associated with the frequency of ongoing supervision among psychotherapists and counsellors. The study design used a cross‐sectional workforce survey of members of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) member associations, representing around 2,500 members. A total of 316 members participated. Ninety‐six per cent of the sample reported receiving ongoing psychotherapy supervision. Twenty percent received supervision weekly and 35% fortnightly. Most received individual supervision, with 8% receiving only group supervision and 9% only peer supervision. A multivariate logistic regression analysis identified several factors related to receiving a higher level of supervision per month: therapists who had higher client contact hours, who had higher rates of personal therapy, an undergraduate degree compared with pre‐tertiary training, and female therapists compared with males. The paper discusses these findings in the context of understanding the development of the counselling/psychotherapy profession, models of counsellor training, and implications for practice and supervision.