Abstract
Clinical supervision plays a central role in the training of psychologists. Trainees are socialised into the profession through teaching and evaluation and monitoring to ensure clients’ rights are safeguarded and to ensure that trainees develop into competent professionals. Supervision supports an environment that is naturally conducive to growth, where the supervisor steadily builds up their supervisees’ capacity to carry out tasks independently. Supervisees’ constant process of professional development depends on their social interactions and development within the supervisory relationship. This paper reflects the findings of a cross-sectional, qualitative research exploring newly qualified psychologists’ experiences negotiating their professional identity in clinical supervision. Participants were ascertained through purposive and snowball sampling. The participants fulfilled these three criteria: newly qualified psychologists in the categories of clinical, counselling, or educational psychology, who have one to three years of experience post-qualification and registration as independent practitioners. Six newly qualified psychologists participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their clinical supervision (known as psychotherapy supervision) and the role this played in negotiating their professional identity. The data was analysed using thematic content analysis within the social constructivism framework. The findings highlighted four key themes, namely: new beginnings, reflection of supervision experiences, ‘difference’ and supervision, and emerging professional identity. These themes suggested that newly qualified psychologists feel significant pressure managing their new role and the work environment, multidisciplinary teams, and institutional politics. Clinical supervision provided both a beneficial space but also a space that is detrimental, lacking, or punitive space. These experiences played a significant role in professional identity; in particular, the discriminatory and racial biases in supervision influenced some newly qualified psychologists’ sense of belonging. In addition to the challenges within the supervisory relationship, several participants highlighted structural changes, and the value of the supervisory relationship to manage the fallout from these. Overall participants reiterated the importance of a supervisory relationship in navigating
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their emerging professional identity and their competence within the field of psychology. These findings suggest an interplay between the supervisor and supervisee. A supervisory relationship should effectively prepare their supervisees to succeed in their professional activities through the development of their professional repertoires and interpersonal skills. Furthermore, supervisees should actively participate in their development, creating a supportive and collaborative supervisory atmosphere with the supervisor.
Keywords: Clinical Supervision, Psychologists, Professional Identity, Qualitative, Professional Training, Qualitative Research Method.