Enhancing the Acquisition of Psychotherapy Skills through Live Supervision.

Supervision is a major component of psychology training programs. This paper explores the difference between "traditional" supervision received by a doctoral clinical psychology student and "live" supervision. In traditional psychotherapy supervision, practicum experiences generally require the student to see a client and then report back to the supervisor for feedback and direction regarding the client. Often, the supervisor has had little or no contact with the client. Supervision in the traditional mode has apparent limitations because it relies heavily on the recollections and interpretations of the trainee, which may be unreliable. With direct live supervision the supervisor watches an ongoing interview, enters the session and intervenes in the therapy process. The main advantage of live supervision, although costly in terms of time and funding of faculty, is that the trainees are able to more quickly perform the expected counseling skills since immediate feedback is available. (BF)