Online Group Supervision in Graduate Psychology Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Group supervision, a common method in graduate psychology training, shifted abruptly to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to increase understanding of psychology graduate students’ perception of online group supervision during COVID-19 by focusing on the group process and the students’ professional identity formation. Data were collected through an online survey comparing an online COVID-19 group sample with a pre-COVID-19 in-person sample. Our findings showed no difference between online group supervision during COVID-19 and in-person group supervision prior to COVID-19 in students’ reports of group processes and the prevalence of professional identity statuses. However, group processes differed according to students’ professional identity statuses while accounting for the supervision format. We discuss the results of our study and offer several theoretical and practical implications regarding online supervision.