(PS9-89) Cross-cultural Possibilities in Clinical Supervision

Abstract Text: According to APA data, more people of color are earning psychology degrees, a trend that is enhancing the diversity of the psychology workforce. While overall most psychologists are still White (81%), in 2021, racial and ethnic minorities represented 26% of psychologists under age 36, compared with 8% of those over age 50. When examining issues occurring within supervision, research suggests an overall discrepancy between the views of supervisees and supervisors regarding the importance of discussions on race and culture to the supervisory alliance and the frequency of these discussions. This seems to stem, in part, from supervisors’ color-blind approaches, which contrasts with the racialized and/or culture-dependent experiences of their supervisees. Supervisees have also reported an explicit avoidance from White supervisors in discussing racial/cultural topics (such as being instructed to ignore these topics) or have experienced criticism from their supervisor for wanting to address these topics in their clinical work (Burkard et al., 2006; Helms & Cook, 1999). Duan and Roehlke (2001) reported that supervisees were more sensitized to racial and cultural issues and perceived less effort from the supervisors in addressing them than the supervisor reported. Some authors also suggest a ‘generational training gap’ between supervisors whose own training may have placed less emphasis on race, racism, ethnicity, and culture, and supervisees who may have been exposed to a more nuanced understanding of these issues. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on what cross-cultural supervisory dyads look like, as well as little to no data on the frequency of BIPOC supervisors in clinical settings. Therefore, this study collected concrete data from a clinical psychology training program in New York which demonstrated the frequency and variety of cross-cultural supervisory dyads and provided evidence for the discrepancy and lack of BIPOC supervisors in practicum experiences.
Eighty-five doctoral students in their fourth year of training in a New York metropolitan program were surveyed about their supervision experiences across their training. This sample was primarily female (72%) with a mean age of 27.5 years. Further, this sample included 23 doctoral students who identified as BIPOC. The total number of clinical supervisors totaled 641 across their training, with a mean of 7.5 (range was from 4-18) supervisors for each student. Out of this sample of supervisors, only 68 (11%) were non-White. Overall, there were only 19 supervision dyads (3%) wherein both the supervisor and the supervisee were non-White. There were 30 dyads (4.7%) with a white supervisee and a BIPOC supervisor. This presents a major challenge for clinical training programs to ensure that students receive experiences that enhance their multicultural competencies. Suggestions for increasing opportunities for BIPOC supervisors are discussed. In addition, it is integral for supervisors to create supervisory relationships emphasizing safety and comfort to enrich clinical training, thus we propose a framework for exploring culturally sensitive strategies to better enhance supervisory alliances of mixed-ethnicity dyads.