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Workforce Development / Training / Supervision

Psychotherapy Training During COVID-19: An Exploration of Supervisory Alliance and Therapeutic Self-Efficacy

(PS7-C73) Psychotherapy Training During COVID-19: an Exploration of Supervisory Alliance and Therapeutic Self-efficacy

Saturday, November 19, 2022

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM EST

Location: Westside Ballroom, 5th Floor

Author(s)

HR

HyeRim Ryu, M.S.

Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Student
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Mount Prospect, Illinois

Co-Author(s)

AS

Allen Sabey, Ph.D.

Primary Investigator
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
TS

Tamara Sher, Ph.D.

Primary Investigator
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
North Chicago, Illinois

There is ample evidence that supervisory alliance is a key pillar for clinical training, leading to positive therapist and therapy outcomes. What is less explored is how that alliance has been affected by COVID-19 related shut-downs and moves to virtual learning. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to replicate, with a pandemic sample, past findings that supervisory alliance is related to trainee therapeutic self-efficacy and to investigate how the pandemic therapeutic alliance compares with pre-pandemic alliance. First, data was collected during the pandemic to assess the quality of supervisory alliance and trainee therapeutic self-efficacy as reported by marriage and family therapy (MFT) first-year trainees (N = 53) as they transitioned into their clinical work. Second, these results were compared with previous, pre-pandemic findings using the same measure to assess for differences. The Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory - Trainee Version (SWAI-T; Efstation, Patton, and Kardash, 1990) was utilized to measure the quality of supervisory alliance from the perspective of the trainee. Consistent with previous research, the SWAI-T’s total and subscale scores (i.e., Client Focus and Rapport) were used. The Counseling Self Efficacy Inventory (COSE; Larson et al., 1992) was used to measure trainees’ self-perceived self-efficacy in therapy training. Mean scores for trainees who began their clinical training during the COVID-19 pandemic were 5.23 (SD = .20) for Rapport and 5.28 (SD = .19) for Client Focus. Moreover, correlation analysis results suggest that supervisory alliance is significantly associated with trainee self-efficacy. Specifically, the total supervisory alliance scores, the Rapport subscale scores, and the Client subscale scores are significantly related to total COSE scores, with all p-values = .04. In comparison, means in Efstation et al.’s original (pre-pandemic) subscale scores for the SWAI-T were 5.85 (SD = .83) for the Rapport scale and 5.44 (SD = .84) for the Client Focus scale. Thus, despite the introduction of pandemic-related constraints, such as the transition into online supervision and teletherapy training, the quality of the supervisory alliance found among current MFT trainees is similar to that of the participants who completed the measures pre-pandemic and leads to similar therapy outcomes. Given the fundamentally formative nature of the supervisory alliance for trainee training and pandemic-related shifts in clinical training in the United States, there is an increased need to assess traditionally well-established training methods and to explore them in light of these COVID-19 constraints. The present study’s findings thus address the need for necessary investigation of this association in ways that might forward effective methods in clinical training during these challenging times.