A post-intentional study of telesupervision experiences of marginalized mental health supervisees

The field of professional mental health providers is growing more diverse, and the method of providing supervision to beginning therapists and trainees has become often characterized by a videoconferencing or telesupervision format (Lebensohn-Chialvo et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2021). There is a need to research and better understand the diversity considerations of telesupervision (Phillips et al., 2021). This phenomenological study provides an exploration into how mental health supervisees who hold one or more marginalized identities experience telesupervision. Seven mental health supervisees participated in one focus group and in follow-up individual interviews. A post-intentional phenomenological inquiry provided the lens for data analyzation. Feminist theory, feminist family therapy and supervision concepts, and telehealth principles also inform the inquiry method. ). Four production themes emerged from the data analysis of the supervisee’s telesupervision experiences. These themes are (a) influences of format on experience, (b) impact on supervisory relationship, (c) connections to self-of-thetherapists concerns, and (d) perceptions of the effect on the field. In addition, three provocation themes surfaced. These themes are (a) requests for more leadership, (b) suggestions for improvement, and (c) professional development opportunities. These resulting themes provide a valuable snapshot of beneficial and challenging supervision practices for underrepresented supervisees. The information provided by the supervisee participants will inform supervisors, iii supervisor training programs, and underrepresented supervisees on ways to improve and maintain competent telesupervision experiences.