Turkish Undergraduate Supervisees’ Views Regarding Supervisory Relationship

Abstract

Purpose: The supervisory relationship plays apivotal role in clinical supervision. It is important forsupervisors and researchers to identify factors regarding a strong supervisory relationship. In the international literature, research found that various factors influence the supervisory relationship. However, research is limited regarding supervisory relationship in undergraduate counselor education in Turkey. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine Turkish undergraduate supervisees’ viewsregarding supervisory relationship.Research Methods: Case study design was used in this study. Participants were selected withmaximum variation and extreme case sampling methods. Twelve undergraduate superviseesparticipated in individual semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed by contentanalysis.Findings: The content analysis indicated three main categories: the quality of the relationship,supervisee and supervisor characteristics that likely influence the relationship, and theoutcomes of the relationship.Implications for Research and Practice: Based on the findings of this study, the most obviousimplication is that the supervisory relationship is one of the key components of supervision,and in order to improve the quality of this relationship, developmental needs and expectationsof supervisees, as well as supervisors’ own variables affecting the relationship, should becarefully taken into consideration by supervisors. We also hope that this attempt to explorethe supervisory relationship in Turkey enterprises will encourage researchers for furtherstudies, which will be intended to use different research designs that include collecting dataat different sessions of supervision from different universities, thus indicating a way forsupervisors to develop strong supervisory relationship with supervisees.