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Article Excerpt
Counselor educators and supervisors can enhance the group supervision process by intentionally selecting expressive arts activities designed to help supervisees develop personal awareness. Expressive arts activities also can serve to increase group understanding and cohesion. The authors provide a rationale for using expressive arts in supervision, describe activities they have implemented, and share supervisees' responses.
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The benefits associated with using expressive arts in counseling are well documented (e.g., France & Allen, 1997; Gladding, 1997, 2005; Ulik & Cummings, 1997). Many of the advantages associated with creative counseling interventions may also apply to creative approaches to supervision. Engaging in creative activities can help counselors-in-training "think outside the box," thus providing them with an opportunity to experience the world in new and different ways. Creative approaches to supervision open channels to supervisees' intuitive faculties, allowing them to reflect on and convey insights and understandings in ways that other approaches may not (Wilkins, 1995). Through the use of expressive arts approaches, supervision can be enhanced as the emotional, perceptual, and creative world of the supervisee is engaged. More specifically, using expressive arts in supervision can help supervisees expand their awareness of self and others and facilitate the development of group cohesion.
In recent years, several counselor educators and supervisors have described ways in which they have integrated expressive arts into supervision and training. For example, Wilkins (1995) described a creative therapies model of group supervision that uses psychodrama and art to help supervisees grow in self-confidence and in self-understanding. Sommer and Cox (2003) outlined a process whereby Greek mythology is used to help "supervisors and counselors-in-training gain alternative perspectives on supervisees' strengths and on ways to transform potential weaknesses into assets" (p. 327). Ter Maat and Bowman (2001) presented ways to integrate art in group supervision, and Shepard (2002) described a process involving the use of screenwriting techniques to train counseling students. In addition, Toman and Rak (2000) and Higgins and Dermer (2001) discussed ways to use cinema in counselor education. After a review of the professional literature, Neswald-McCalip, Sather, Strati, and Dineen (2003) concluded that integrating creative modalities into supervision is "acceptable in counselor education" (p. 224) and enhances student learning and self-knowledge.
Although expressive arts can be used in individual supervision, they may be most valuable in group supervision, in which supervisees have opportunities to learn about themselves in relation to others (Wilkins, 1995). A primary goal of group supervision, according to Bernard and Goodyear (2004), is to further supervisees' understanding of themselves as clinicians and of the clients with whom they work. Supervisees often achieve this goal by receiving feedback from and interacting with group members. Integrating expressive arts into the group supervisory experience may be one way to facilitate effective communication between supervisors and group members. The universal language of artistic expression, as well as its perceived objectivity, can help reduce resistance and build connections (Gladding, 2005). Expressive arts offer unique opportunities to help supervisees explore personal values and beliefs and to share their discoveries with others in the group.
In this article, we describe expressive arts activities that we have used in group supervision over the past 5 years. Prior to describing those activities, we briefly review models of supervision that emphasize the importance of personal awareness, describe ways in which expressive arts can enhance personal awareness, and discuss the relationship between expressive arts and group cohesion.
DEVELOPING PERSONAL AWARENESS
Several models of supervision attest to the importance of personal awareness as it relates to professional growth as a counselor. For example, Holloway's (1995) systems model emphasizes the relevance of five supervision functions, among which are emotional awareness, professional role development, and self-evaluation. Each of these functions focuses on supervisees' development of insight in regard to their personal and professional growth. Likewise, Bernard's (1979, 1997) discrimination model, which was originally developed as a teaching tool, includes a description of three supervision foci: intervention skills, conceptualization skills, and personalization skills. Of these, personalization skills refer to how a supervisee combines his or her personal style with the counseling role while simultaneously keeping the counseling process uncontaminated by personal issues (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004). Personalization skills include the supervisee's level of self-understanding--that is, his or her awareness of personal feelings, values, and attitudes (Nelson, Johnson, & Thorngren, 2000).
Developmental models of supervision, such as the models proposed by Stoltenberg, McNeill, and Delworth (1998); Ronnestad and Skovholt (2003); and Loganbill, Hardy, and Delworth (1982), also emphasize the need for supervisees to develop increased levels of self-awareness. Developmental models of supervision focus on how supervisees change as they gain training and experience (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004). The integrative developmental model (Stoltenberg et al., 1998) emphasizes developmental changes in self--other awareness. Ronnestad and Skovholt's model, which includes 14 themes of therapist--counselor development, emphasizes the importance of continuous self-reflection and an increasing integration of the professional self and the personal self. Loganbill et al.'s model focuses on eight developmental issues with which supervisees often struggle. Developmental issues that relate to personal awareness include competence, emotional awareness, respect for individual differences, and identity. Although these three developmental models differ in assumptions and emphases, they all have implications for how supervisors will work with supervisees (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004), and all emphasize the development of personal awareness as it relates to the counseling role.
Expressive arts approaches in supervision can serve as vehicles for enhancing supervisees' development of personal awareness skills. Creative expression provides avenues for bringing thoughts and emotions into awareness in ways that differ from more traditional rational, linear approaches (Gladding, 2005). As Gladding pointed out, expressive arts can help "draw people out of self-consciousness and into self-awareness by having them express themselves in a symbolic manner" (p. 10). Creative modalities...
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