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The reflective model of triadic supervision: defining an emerging modality.

Article Excerpt
Current Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP; 2001) standards promote the use of triadic supervision by counselor educators and supervisors. However, conceptual models of triadic supervision do not presently exist in the supervision literature. This article describes the process and structure of 1 model of triadic supervision (D. M. Kleist & N. R. Hill, 2003). This model provides a vehicle for implementing triadic supervision in response to changes in the CACREP standards and adds to the literature on triadic supervision. Implications for counselor educators and supervisors, as well as future research, are conceptualized.

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Counselor education is an academic discipline focusing on promoting the educational and professional development of counselors. Professional education and development of counselors involves two fundamental tasks: acquiring knowledge of formal theories and acquiring knowledge and related skills accumulated through professional experiences (Schon, 1983). An integral component of the educational experience is clinical supervision. Bernard and Goodyear (1998) asserted that clinical supervision is the "crucible" that addresses both of these domains and serves as a catalyst for counselor trainees to integrate this knowledge into their own counseling framework.

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP; 2001) articulated standards that promote and ensure the quality of training programs. Section III of the 2001 Standards clearly outlines the clinical instruction requirements for program faculty, site supervisors, the instructional environment, as well as supervision. More specifically, the CACREP 2001 Standards expand the delivery of clinical supervision to include both individual and triadic supervision. Previous standards did not include triadic supervision and focused on individual supervision as the only possible modality for conducting clinical supervision with students outside of group supervision. The CACREP 2001 Standards are currently being revised in the hopes of instituting a new set of guiding accrediting principles by 2008. Within the proposed CACREP 2008 Standards (see http://www.cacrep.org/StandardsRevisionText.html), there is no clarification or elaboration regarding the use of triadic supervision. As counselor education programs respond to the new CACREP standards, it is necessary to explore how to structure and implement triadic supervision in counselor education training programs.

In addition to the changing standards, counseling departments grow, more students enter the counseling profession, and, ultimately, more students will be taking practicum and internship courses in fulfillment of their professional counseling degrees Since its inception 20 years ago, "CACREP has accredited programs in 188 institutions" (J. Gunderman, personal communication, June 8, 2005). Since 1999, CACREP has increased its institutional accreditation from 124 programs to 188 programs (2004 statistics), which is indicative of a 52% increase (J. Gunderman, personal communication, June 8, 2005).

Faculty engaging in supervision may find themselves with more students and less time for supervision. In their best efforts to meet the needs of both the program and the students, as well to adhere to the CACREP 2001 standards, faculty may use triadic supervision: seeing two students together for supervision and using the same format as for individual supervision. Potentially, the only change in logistics might be the fact that there are two students versus one in supervision.

The structure and implementation of triadic supervision has been left to the faculty supervisor, with no guidance from the accrediting body. Given academic freedom to interpret the standards, one is left with little support in the literature. The research on clinical supervision is limited for all modalities. There is a dearth of literature that explores the nature and effectiveness of individual, group, live, and triadic supervision. Although there is a small number of empirical studies of individual, group, and live supervision, there is no current research on triadic supervision within the counselor education literature (Bernard & Goodyear, 1998). The only pertinent study in the counselor education literature conceptualized triadic supervision as consisting of three students who engaged in a supervisory relationship by being responsible for distinct roles (Spice & Spice, 1976). A faculty member was involved in the process initially to facilitate the students' assuming specified roles. The current model presented by CACREP (2001) involves a faculty member as a primary component of the triadic supervision. There is no literature that addresses triadic supervision as currently conceptualized by CACREP, and there are no specific models on how to conduct it.

This article proposes an emergent model for conducting triadic supervision titled the reflective model of triadic supervision (RMTS; Kleist...

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