This project is being undertaken as part of a Masters project in the Master of Counselling (Advanced Practice) program through the University of Southern Queensland.

UniSQ HREC Approval number: ETH2023-0538      

Clinical supervision is a fundamental component in the professional practice of counselling. Although clinical supervision is primarily conceptualised as a protective consumer fail safe (assessing practitioner burnout and ensuring ethical practices are maintained), it also meets the professional developmental, educatory and mentoring needs of new generations of therapists (Pelling & Armstrong, 2017). The importance of supervision is also recognised in the requirements of practitioner registration and maintenance with professional memberships of peak bodies (ACA, 2019; PACFA, 2023). Specialised, accredited training in supervision provides practitioners with the foundational skills to begin supervisory practice. However, supervisory practice is complex with myriad challenges for both supervisor and supervisee.

Boundary tensions, dual/poly-relationships, legitimate structural power imbalances and the maintenance of the supervisory alliance present a complex professional labyrinth for practitioners to navigate (Burns, 2020; Corey et al., 2018; De Stefano et al., 2017; Watkins, 2014). Although professional guidelines and contemporary best-practice literature provide useful theoretical and practical foundational resources, there is limited qualitative research that focuses on the voice of counselling supervising practitioners from an Australian context exists. If the counselling profession in Australia wishes to continue reaching for additional professional industry acknowledgement and practice rigor, further research into supervisory practice difficulties and challenges is necessary.

The purpose of this project is to broadly increase attention toward counselling supervision in Australia and gain further insight into how practitioners are navigating challenges relating to boundary tensions and poly-relational issues within the supervisory dyad.

 

Aims

The clinical counselling supervisory relationship can present unique, multidimensional, and interconnected practice challenges.

This study aims to broadly increase attention toward counselling supervision in Australia and gain further insight into how practitioners are navigating some of these challenges.

The research question of this investigation is as follows, “How are counselling supervisors navigating boundary tensions and poly-relational challenges that arise within clinical supervision?”.

The study is also interested in exploring the occurrence of transparent practice, with particular attention toward the application of initial and ongoing contracting within the relationship.

 

Participation

This research proposes to conduct semi-structured interviews with ten experienced and accredited (ACA or PACFA) counselling supervisors (10 participants in total).

Participation will involve partaking in an interview that will take approximately 60 minutes.

Participation in this project is entirely voluntary. If participants decide to take part and later change their mind, they are free to withdraw from the project at any stage. Participants will be unable to withdraw data collected about yourself after they have participated in the interview.

Please reach out to the Research Team (below) to participate in this study.

Principal Investigator	Supervisor/Co-investigator
Mr Peter Avetisoff Email: [email protected] Telephone: +61 7 4631 2285 Mobile: +61 490 061 967	Dr Christine Chinchen Email: [email protected] Telephone: +61 7 4631 2285

Supervisor/Co-investigator

Dr Elisa Angostinelli Email: [email protected] Telephone: +61 7 4631 2285

 

Privacy and Confidentiality

All comments and responses are confidential unless required by law.

The interviews will be audio recorded and later transcribed for thematic analysis.

You will be provided with a copy of the interview transcript for your records and afforded a two week period to review the accuracy of the transcription.

Upon concluding the interview, your endorsement will be assumed and you will not be provided an opportunity request any changes to the transcript before the data is included in the project for analysis.

All members of the research team will have access to the recording and transcription. Transcriptions will be conducted by members of the research team.

It is not possible to participate in the project without being recorded.

Non-identifiable audio recording and transcription data will be made available for similar future research purposes.

An executive summary of the research projects results will be provided to you in a timely manner.

Any data collected as a part of this project will be stored securely, as per University of Southern Queensland’s Research Data and Primary Materials Management Procedure.

 

Questions

If you have any concerns or complaints about the ethical conduct of the project, you may contact the University of Southern Queensland, Manager of Research Integrity and Ethics on +61 7 4631 1839 or email [email protected]. The Manager of Research Integrity and Ethics is not connected with the research project and can address your concern in an unbiased manner.

Thank you for taking the time to help with this research project. Please keep this document for your information.