Supervisor Experience, Counselor Trainee Development, and Client Outcomes

Clinical supervision is a universally required experience for counselors-in-training in virtually all accredited academic settings in the fields of counseling psychology and counselor education. The supervision literature emphasizes that a counseling supervisor’s essential role is to maintain professional standards and client welfare (Bernard & Goodyear, 2008). During supervision practica experiences, doctoral level counseling students routinely supervise master’s level counseling students’ work with clients in training clinics. Differences in client outcomes based on whether master’s students are supervised by doctoral student supervisors or licensed psychologists have not been covered in the supervision literature. Given the important and prevalent role of supervision in the fields of counseling psychology and counselor education, it is important to contribute additional research addressing supervisor experience level and its impact on counselor trainee development and client outcomes