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Family therapy supervision in an agency setting: An analysis of moments-of-intervention
Abstract
As a discipline virtually unknown thirty years ago, family therapy has expanded in a rapid manner. However, surprisingly little scientific attention has been given to the process of supervision and training. Supervision remains mainly a matter of intuition and individual experience. This dissertation attempts to understand the supervisory process by examining how experienced supervisors make intervention decisions during live supervision. The subjects of study are three experienced family therapy supervisors who train students in agency settings. Theoretical and empirical literature pertaining to live supervision is reviewed. Included is literature that describes the context of family therapy supervision, literature which defines the cognitive maps used by supervisors, and descriptive accounts of training programs for supervisors. Two conceptual models are reviewed, Schon's (1983) theory of "reflection-in-action." and Gorman's (1988) model of the context of family therapy supervision, which was developed to guide the present inquiry. The moment-of-intervention, defined as the point during live supervision when the supervisor communicates with the trainee in order to affect the session's activity, is the unit of analysis providing a window into the supervisory process. A total of 24 moments-of-intervention (8 per supervisor) were observed. Video tapes of these interventions were transcribed and rated based on a typology consisting of eight different dimensions. All three supervisors tended to make interventions that were direct, specific, supervisor-initiated, and immediate. A subsample of 12 moments-of-intervention (4 per supervisor) was chosen for further study. Interviews with each of the supervisors revealed important influences in decision-making were the expectations of the employing agency and the pervasive influence of the supervisor's training-of-origin. Next in importance was the supervisor's family-of-origin and immediate collegial group. Least influential was awareness of the expectations of the larger profession. The results are valuable because they offer a description of the supervisory process grounded in systematic observation of actual interventions. The results confirm a number of theoretical expectations, highlight some elements of the supervisory process that were not incorporated in either theoretical model, and suggest directions for future research.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy|Academic guidance counseling|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Social psychology
Recommended Citation
Gorman, Patricia Ann, "Family therapy supervision in an agency setting: An analysis of moments-of-intervention" (1989). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9011730.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9011730