This article explores clinician’s attitudes about directiveness and client service and compares the characteristics and beliefs of directive and nondirective supervisors through an analysis of survey responses. Directiveness has three dimensions: decision-making, information-sharing, and task allocation and performance.
Directive supervisors were more committed to providing clients with the highest quality of service in a manner that was not often compromised for the sake of student learning. Directive supervisors are likely to believe that students can learn in the role of co-counsel, where they are not responsible for making core decisions. On the other hand, non-directive supervisors stress the value of fostering student independence and encouraging students to formulate and execute strategies. Non-directive supervisors are committed to long-term educational goals, such as helping students “learn how to learn”.
The study found that most clinicians favour non-directive approaches; however, a substantial minority do not. Nearly all clinicians reported concern about directiveness in their own supervision, noting that they felt they supervised more directly than they should have.
James H Stark, Jon Bauer & James Papillo, “Directiveness in Clinical Supervision” (1993) 3:1 BU Pub Int L J 35.
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