The objectives approach to clinical supervision: Towards integration and empirical evaluation

Clinical supervision in psychology training and practice is a significant and growing need in the Australian and international contexts. This paper briefly reviews current models of supervision and critically examines their implications for current research and practice. Two significant problems with current supervision models are that they lack the specificity to translate into clinical practice and the empirical research to demonstrate supervision effectiveness. The objectives approach, a paradigm from curriculum design and educational research, is described and applied to the domain of clinical supervision. It is argued that the new approach enhances conceptual clarity and provides a framework that facilitates choice of appropriate supervision objectives and methods, assessment of trainee competence, and evaluation of supervision efficacy. Based on the theoretical framework, a pilot study that examined concordance between supervisor and trainee with regard to supervision objectives and methods was conducted and results are described.