Supervising Role-Related Self-Compassion: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Clinical Supervisors

Abstract

This project addresses the promotion of role-related self-compassion (SC) in psychotherapists as part of their professional development and maintenance. There is evidence that therapists who are more self-compassionate are better-protected from emotional burnout (Beaumont et al., 2016), suggesting that self-compassion become part of therapist education(Nelson et al., 2018), but there is a lack of research regarding how this role-related selfcompassion is addressed by supervisors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 clinical supervisors in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. Thematic analysis (TA) derived 5 main themes, including Participants’ Definitions of SC, Supervisee struggles leading participants to address SC in supervision Participants’ approaches to addressing SC with supervisees, Institutional structures addressing self-care, self-compassion, and Challenges associated with addressing SC in supervision. Results suggest that participants viewed self-compassion as an important component of therapist self-care, and employed a number of direct and indirect methods to address and encourage it with supervisees. Implications for practice and training are included.