Examining the Supervision Work Alliance Scale: A Rasch Model Approach

Background: The supervisory working alliance has a role in facilitating guidance and counseling supervisors in providing understanding of how the service works. Measuring the level of supervision work alliance is one way that can be done to find out whether a supervisor has a good supervisory work alliance or not. Objective: The research aims to describe the quality of the Supervision Work Alliance Scale (SWAS) instrument. Materials and Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional method with a quantitative research design. Participants in this study were counseling teachers implementing the internship program with 17 males and 55 females. This type of parameter needs to be identified by the category coefficient of the RASCH scoring function model for polycotomic responses. Results: The results show that as many as 34 items proved to be compatible with SWAS instruments. The cronbach alpha of the instrument was 0.91 which means that the all items were in the high category of reliability. The misfit items were only 5,88, so all of the items in SWAS were well understood by the participants. Conclusion: The development of SWAS instrument is valid and reliable, so it can be used to measure the variable of the supervisory work alliance

Working Alliance as a Mediator between Supervisory Styles and Supervisee Satisfaction

To answer the research question whether there is a mediation effect of the supervisory working alliance between supervisory styles and supervisee satisfaction, we developed a mediation model and tested this hypothesized mediation effect with a sample of 111 participants that was comprised of master’s and doctoral counselor trainees and counseling practitioners recruited from several counseling professional networks. Results indicated a statistically significant indirect effect of supervisory styles on supervisee satisfaction through the supervisory working alliance. Specifically, when supervisees rated higher on a mixture of three supervisory styles, they were more likely to report a stronger working alliance with their supervisors; this alliance, in turn, contributed to their higher levels of satisfaction with supervision. These findings also speak to the importance of maintaining a flexible, balanced approach in supervision, and shed light on how both supervisors and supervisees can contribute to the supervisory working alliance so as to enhance supervisee satisfaction.

Comparing In-Person Supervision and Telesupervision: A Multiple Baseline Single-Case Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated the unplanned, widespread adoption of telepsychotherapy by mental health care professionals. Psychotherapy supervision is also undergoing a rapid shift to telepractice, though questions remain about the efficacy and regulatory standing of telesupervision. A critical unanswered question is: How does telesupervision compare to traditional in-person supervision? This study (completed before the COVID-19 pandemic) used a multiple baseline single-case design to compare the relative effectiveness of in-person supervision and telesupervision. For the small sample of supervisee participants, in-person supervision and telesupervision had equivalent outcomes; there was no significant decrease in participant-rated supervision satisfaction or supervisory working alliance after participants switched from the initial in-person supervision format to telesupervision. In follow-up interviews, participants discussed four themes which may be relevant to mental health care professionals adopting telesupervision: (a) differences between modalities, (b) characteristics of an effective supervisor, (c) the role of technology, and (d) personal preference. These results add to a small but growing evidence base that suggests telesupervision is a viable alternative to in-person supervision. Practical recommendations for telesupervision during the COVID-19 pandemic are also discussed.

DOES THE NUMBER OF SUPERVISED COUNSELING PRACTICE EXPERIENCES MAKE DIFFERENCE IN THE WISDOM OF PRE-SERVICE COUNSELORS?

Wisdom is one of the fundamental qualities of personality, core competence, and predictors of effective counselor. The wisdom of a pre-service counselor is predicted to develop if the counselor has the opportunity to undergo, ask, reflect, and internalize his/her experiences through supervised counseling practice. The objective of the research is to compare the wisdom resulted by Indonesian pre-service counselors based on the number of supervision during counseling practices. The research used the ex post facto method. The sample of this research consisted of 489 sixth semester pre-service counselors of 11 guidance and counseling department in Indonesia, whereas 307 students only received < 3x supervision, and 182 students with >3x supervision. Data were collected using Indonesian Counselor's Wisdom Scale with Cronbach’s Alpha = .92. The t-test results show that there was a significant difference in the average score of wisdom and each dimension: religious, personal, social, emotional, reflective, and ethic of the pre-service counselors based on the number of supervised counseling practice where those with less supervision had better quality of wisdom. This means that the small number of supervised counseling practice experience but with a quality of supervisory working alliance can develop the wisdom of pre-service counselors.