Managing Feelings of Incompetence in Supervision: A Modified Grounded Theory Study of Counselling Interns

Abstract

Feelings of incompetence (FOI) are a pervasive self-care issue for practitioners of psychotherapy, independent of their levels of experience (Theriault & Gazzola, 2008). Supervision may be an effective strategy for alleviating the impact of FOI; however, it is unclear how FOI are managed in supervision and how therapists experience their struggles with FOI in the context of supervision. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with six Master's level counselling interns (5 female, 1 male) who were receiving individual supervision. A modified grounded theory analysis (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) yielded five major categories: Properties of Intern FOI that Required Management in and/or out of Supervision, Actions of the Intern that Pertain to the Management of FOI in Supervision, Attributes of the Intern That Influence FOI-Management in Supervision, Aspects of Supervision That are Helpful to the Management of FOI, and Aspects of Supervision That Hinder the Management of FOI. Implications for counsellor supervisors, counsellor educators, and counselling interns themselves are discussed.