THE EFFECT OF SUPERVISOR AND TRAINEE THERAPIST GENDER ON SUPERVISION DISCOURSE

The effects of supervisor and trainee therapist gender on supervision discourse were examined in this study. Forty episodes of supervision d iscourse, with ten drawn from each of four types of supervision system s were videotaped. The systems were (1) male supervisor and male train ee therapist; (2);male supervisor and female trainee therapist; (3) fe male supervisor and male trainee therapist; and (4) female supervisor and female trainee therapist. The episodes of supervision discourse we re analysed using a supervision discourse coding system which showed a dequate inter-rater reliability. For supervisors, the coding system al lowed a directive discourse style and a collaborative discourse styled to be coded. A cooperative discourse style and a resistant discourse style could be coded for trainee therapists. Two statistically signifi cant findings of considerable theoretical and clinical importance emer ged. First, contrary to stereotypic expectations, discourse characteri zed by a directive supervision style and a resistant trainee therapist style was more common for systems containing a female supervisor than for those containing a male supervisor. Second, for same gender super visor-trainee-therapist supervision systems, a collaborative systemic supervision style was correlated with both cooperative and resistant t rainee therapist styles. This discourse pattern did riot occur for opp osite gender supervision systems, indicating that a collaborative supe rvision discourse style is consistently associated with trainee therap ist participation (either cooperatively or resistantly) within same ge nder pairings of supervisors and trainee therapists. These results are discussed in light of relevant literature on gender, power and superv ision process and the limitations of the study are considered.