Supervision Experiences of School Counselors-in-Training: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study

Students pursuing a master’s degree in CACREP-accredited school counseling programs are required to complete supervised field experiences as a part of their course requirements. During their practicum and internships experiences, they receive university supervision by a faculty member or doctoral student supervisor, as well as site supervision at the placement site, typically from a school counselor. University supervisors may lack experience in school counseling and knowledge of the unique roles and supervision needs of school counselors. In addition, site supervisors may lack training or knowledge of clinical supervision. Furthermore, the multiple systems in which SCITs function may have differing goals and expectations for supervisees. The various factors influencing supervision may result in confusion and frustration for SCITs. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to understand the supervision experiences of SCITs enrolled in CACREP-accredited counselor education programs in Southern Louisiana universities who recently completed internship. Specifically, I sought to understand SCITs experiences with regard to university individual and group supervision, site supervision, and what influence, if any, the ASCA National Model had on their supervision experiences. After receiving IRB approval, participants were invited to participate via an email solicitation. The eight participants chosen were master’s students from CACREP-accredited counselor education programs who recently completed internship. Data were collected through individual, face-to-face, audio-recorded interviews utilizing a semi-structured interview protocol. After the interviews were transcribed, the data were analyzed using IPA data analysis procedures. The final analysis resulted in four super-ordinate themes. The findings describe the meaning of the lived experiences of SCITs with supervision. According to the results, supervision experiences, whether being reported as positive or negative, could be attributed to: impact of counselor education program, aspects related to supervisors, significance of feedback, and influence of self. The results could help inform the design of counselor education programs to more adequately prepare SCITs for school counseling as it is today. Furthermore, the results could help improve site supervision practices