Supervision Success: Experience of Supervisee's Successful Navigation Of A Faith-Based Value Conflict

Due to the counseling field’s recommendations for best practice, counselors should not refer a client solely based on a value conflict (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014; Kaplan et al., 2017; Remley & Herlihy, 2020). Yet many feel unprepared or unsupported to navigate faith-based value conflicts (Blair, 2015; Hunt, 2019; Sells & Hagedorn, 2016). This study explored the strengths side of this issue, interviewing counselors or counselors in training (CIT) and exploring how a supervisor who did not align with them spiritually aided them in successfully navigating a faith-based value conflict. Seven participants were interviewed utilizing semi-structured interviews. These interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) data analysis methods, in which the researcher immerses themself in the data to discover patterns and themes. Four superordinate and fourteen subordinate themes were found; they were: (a) direct supervision interventions (confrontation, direction, and promoting self-awareness), (b) indirect supervision interventions (exploration, safety, rapport in supervision, supervision characteristics, and supervisor presence), (c) supervision outcomes (shaped therapeutic approach or counselor identity, the client benefits, increased awareness of bias, and emulation of supervisor), and (d) counselor as supervisee (open to feedback and counselor-initiated topic). Implications for counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors were also explored.