Supervisor behaviors as predictors of therapist and family behaviors in family therapy live supervision

This research project examined the presence and quality of supervisory in-session interventions (phone-ins) and subsequent change in therapist and client behavior. A secondary focus was to explore the concept of isomorphism between supervision and therapy. The degree of congruence between supervisor and trainee on specific behaviors (support and teach) was examined in terms of its ability to predict in-session change in client behavior. Subjects included supervisors, therapists and clients. Three coding systems were employed (The Client Resistance Code, The Therapist Behavior Coding System and The Supervisor Behavior Coding System), coders were trained, and segments from eighty-four videotaped sessions (from two family therapy training sites) were coded. The reliability for the coding schemes was judged good to excellent. The results of this study suggest that supervisors employ primarily Teach components and less frequently, Reframe, Support, Question and Confront behavioral categories in their phone-in interventions during the process of family therapy live supervision. There was no difference found in supervisory behavior across gender and experience level of the trainees. When only examining those interventions that supervisors and trainees considered to be the most effective and least effective , there were significant differences in two out of seven (support and confront) behavioral categories. The findings indicated that while trainee behavior did not significantly change as a result of the presence of support and teach supervisory interventions, trainee change was predicted when the effectiveness of those supervision interventions was examined. Finally, the results suggest that in those phone-in interventions when both supervisor and trainee support and teach behavior was judged effective, client behavior positively changed under certain conditions