Supervisory interventions and reactions following an attempted or completed suicide by a supervisee's client.

Abstract

This study investigated the clinical supervision process following an attempted or completed suicide by a supervisee‘s client. Eleven supervisors (psychologists, clinical social workers, or marriage and family therapists) who had provided individual clinical supervision to a clinician whose client attempted or completed suicide during the course of treatment discussed their experiences in a semi-structured interview. They responded to questions regarding the nature of interventions provided to supervisees following the attempted or completed suicide and their reactions, both to the event, and to their supervisees. Data were analyzed using a Consensual Qualitative Research methodology (Hill, Williams, & Thompson, 1997; Hill, Knox, Thompson, Williams, Hess, & Ladany, 2005) to identify major themes that address the supervisory context (e.g., supervision parameters, supervisory relationship), the event details, interventions, supervisor reactions, and implications and consequences (e.g., long-term effects for supervisors). Supervision, training, and research recommendations are provided.