“I wouldn’t want to operate without it”: Experienced sport

psychology consultants engagement in

supervisionLee-Ann Sharp University of Ulster

Ken Hodge University of OtagoSteve Danish Virginia Commonwealth University

SupervisionSupervision

“The primary focus in supervision is (or should be) the appropriate, ethical and, it is hoped, beneficial delivery of psychological services to the client or clients” (Andersen, 1994, p. 155).

Supervision can help SPCs gain an understanding of:-

• how their own personalities interact with clients, • how their needs get expressed, • how they cope with criticism & making mistakes, • how resistant they are to change (Andersen, Van Raalte & Brewer, 2000)

Supervision for Supervision for allall

Supervision is regarded as an important, if not essential, aspect of the training & development of SPCs (Poczwardowski, Sherman, & Henschen, 1998; Silva, Conroy, & Zizzi, 1999; Van Raalte & Andersen, 2000).

Continued supervision allows the SPC to develop respectability, accountability & quality control (Andersen & Williams-Rice,1996).

SPC supervision should extend beyond the training and development of new SPCs, as it is an essential tool to monitor consulting effectiveness & challenges to ethical boundaries while also a key element to SPC continuing education (Andersen, Van Raalte & Brewer, 2000; Sharp & Hodge, 2011; Sharp, Hodge, & Danish, in press) .

PurposePurpose

The purpose of this investigation was to examine experienced sport psychology consultants’ (SPCs) perceptions of the role of peer support and supervision within their applied practice.

MethodologyMethodology

Participants 10 experienced SPCs purposefully

sampled.

Experience consulting at Olympic Games (summer & winter); World Championships; World Cups; European Championships; Commonwealth Games; Wimbledon; British Premiership –Soccer; Spanish La Ligua-Soccer.

8 males & 2 females; M age = 50.44yrs; M consulting experience = 21.67yrs.

MethodologyMethodology

Instrument Individual face-to-face interviews

Analysis Thematic content analysis

Reliability & trustworthiness Member checking Audit trail (Lincoln & Guba, 1985)

Extensive participant quotations (Sparkes, 1998)

Results

Monitoring Monitoring

“Its funny even though I’ve got a lot of experience I still call on my colleagues for verification for my own personal support” (SPC 1).

“I wouldn’t want to want to operate without that, cos it’s too easy to get into trouble if you are completely on your own. I find as I get older, and more experienced in this field it’s easy to take the short cut, I’m pretty sure I know exactly what is going on here. Whereas, it’s always helpful, when you have to explain it, and someone says “how come you didn’t or why not” and those sorts of basic questions that make you stop for a minute and make you go, ok wait a minute maybe I really need to rethink this” (SPC 9).

SupportSupport

“... to keep my sanity... you work with really volatile characters and big personalities and you can often be on the receiving end or it. Sometimes it can be quite a lonely position if you’re working with a coach that disengages or isn’t interested” (SPC 3).

“I’ve always found it pretty effective in terms of offering perspective... offering reassurance, offering ideas as well as education. Sometimes they’ve [peers/supervisors] got more experience in a particular sport than I have, so I might ask them, have you any ideas, or tell them about a particular experience that I’ve had or a particular issue or concern an athlete’s going through” (SPC 7).

Gain insight into Gain insight into selfself

“On a similar basis to the way you work with athletes it becomes a mirror in which you see yourself... you also see opportunities for growth and development” (SPC 2).

“To get to know yourself better, to see who you are, and why and how you respond. What you actually do when you are with a client... to get much more self-awareness” (SPC 6).

“For me it’s very helpful to talk it out and supervision gives me a chance to figure out what I actually think” (SPC 8).

Frequency of Frequency of supervisionsupervision

“I ring them twice a week but they are there when you want them and when they want you. They are just on the end of a phone. Probably once every two or three months we’ll have a chat” (SPC 3).

“[It] happens every couple of weeks as a minimum... and it depends what I’ve been working on. The challenges are when you are away a lot, trying to make that happen... It’s the regularity of contact and I think that it should be a mandatory requirement and real clear guidelines set down but that escapes us completely” (SPC 4).

Informal StructureInformal Structure

“The structure is just discussing cases, the good, the bad, and the ugly, so to speak. Sometimes it’s obviously when the crisis situation arrives, then it becomes particularly important to have that network of trusted colleagues to get the input and advice” (SPC 5).

“It’s completely informal. I ring them up, or I see them, and I say “can I just pinch half an hour off you at some point?” When we’ve got it I say ok, “I just want to get a bit of help with something. Just talk through whatever it is... It just happens” (SPC 7).

“It’s straight forward, this is the issue I’ve got... or if there is something that I have felt uncomfortable with, I perhaps ask for a different perspective, kind of thing. Or, I’m alright at the moment, I don’t think there is anything problematic, is there anything you want to chat about? You know, it’s as informal as that, but it’s useful” (SPC 8).

Self select Self select supervisorssupervisors

“It’s a little bit self-selection. I trust them, they trust me, they appreciate what I do, I appreciate what they do. But the big one is that they’re good” (SPC 1).

“I guess expertise and I like, or I trust them, or I respect them. You know the trust is important if you’re reaching out to a colleague, you need to know that they know how it works in terms of confidentiality” (SPC 7).

“Number 1 I have to be able to respect their views and trust them, number 2” (SPC 6).

DiscussionDiscussion

Results reinforce that supervision is not just for students, it is an important element in the continuing education and professional monitoring of all SPCs.

Continued supervision allows the SPC to develop respectability, accountability and quality control (Andersen & Williams-Rice, 1996; Sharp & Hodge, 2011; Winstone & Gervis, 2006).

Considering the obvious need and benefits gained from continued supervision and support, it is surprising that there are currently no guidelines/recommendations for continued supervision within accrediting bodies.

Questions?Questions?

L.sharp@ulster.ac.uk