Challenges and Ethical Issues in Counseling Supervision from Faculty Supervisors’ Perspective

Abstract

Supervision is an essential aspect of counselor development. Supervisors should have the necessary qualifications to provide effective supervision. The difficulties encountered and ethical problems can make the supervision they provide ineffective or harmful. As emphasized in the supervision literature, supervisors may unwittingly offer ineffective supervision. Therefore, it is thought that there is a need to examine the experiences of the supervisors. This study aimed to present empirical evidence on the challenges and ethical problems faced by supervisors in counseling supervision and ways of coping. For this purpose, the explanatory sequential mixed methods research design was used. The most common challenging factors, ethical issues, and coping methods were obtained from faculty supervisors via a web-based questionnaire. Also, online interviews were conducted with nine volunteer faculty supervisors to delve into their experiences. The most challenging factors were about conducting supervision, supervision methods, and techniques, evaluation, and focus of supervision. The supervisor encounters ethical problems such as confidentiality and privacy, emergency, evaluation process, unprofessional behavior of the supervisee, and multiple relationships. Consultation, getting literature support and having a strong supervision relationship with the supervisee are the most frequently used coping methods. The results of this study provide a framework for supervisors' needs to provide effective supervision. Based on these findings, it is thought that supervisor training will provide a critical contribution to supervisors as to gaining the knowledge and skills they need to cope with these challenges.