A Brief Qualitative Examination of Multicultural Orientation in Clinical Supervision

Research has demonstrated that therapists’ multicultural orientation (MCO)—consisting of cultural humility, cultural comfort, and cultural opportunities—is key to client outcomes. The primary method for training psychotherapists is clinical supervision, and recent quantitative research provides preliminary support for the importance of MCO in clinical supervision. To date, however, there has been no qualitative inquiry of clinical supervision since the introduction of new models of cultural responsiveness. Thus, we sought to understand helpful experiences, unhelpful experiences, and supervisee expectations regarding culturally responsive clinical supervision through qualitative examination. Supervisees’ (N = 102) responses resulted in three categories: (a) helpful cultural supervisory experiences, (b) unhelpful cultural supervisory experiences, and (c) missed opportunities in supervision. Subthemes emerged related to supervisor characteristics, and supervision processes and content.