Psychoanalytic Constructs in Psychotherapy Supervision

While the constructs of the working alliance, parallel process, and counter-transference have long had transtheoretical appeal for many supervision practitioners, what empirical data—quantitative or qualitative—are there that support their use in psychotherapy supervision? In this paper, I attempt to address that question by: (1) identifying empirical, data-based efforts to research the supervisory working alliance (n=17), parallel process (n=1), and countertransference (n=1); (2) reviewing and determining for each study sample characteristics, measures used, procedure, analyses used, findings, and limitations; (3) identifying the primary conclusions that can be drawn from that review and analysis; and (4) considering the implications and directions for future supervision research and practice. While the data appear strongest for the supervisory working alliance and tentatively support its place in psychotherapy supervision, research on alliance, parallel process, and countertransference is still very much in its infancy and sorely limited empirically. Some avenues for remedying previous study deficiencies are presented, and the hope and caution of future research on these constructs are considered.