Effective and Ineffective Supervision

Although supervision is recognized as a significant tenant of professional growth for counseling and psychotherapy students, the variability of the effec-tiveness, or ineffectiveness, of supervision has come under scrutiny in recent times. Our sample of 128 participants shed light on the most effective (e.g., encouraged autonomy, strengthened the supervisory relationship, and facili-tated open discussion) and most ineffective (e.g., depreciated supervision, per-formed ineffective client conceptualization and treatment, and weakened the supervisory relationship) supervisor skills, techniques, and behaviors. Moreover, effective and ineffective behaviors, along with best and worst supervisors, were significantly differentiated based on the supervisory working alliance, supervi-sor style, supervisor self-disclosure, supervisee nondisclosure, and supervisee evaluation. Implications for supervision competencies and supervisor account-ability are discussed