Telesupervision in counselling and psychotherapy: a systematic review of the literature

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough the use of telesupervision (technology-assisted supervision) is increasing in line with trends in digital health, this remains to be an under-researched area. This systematic review sought to evaluate the current state of knowledge about counsellors’, psychotherapists’ and psychologists’ perspectives and experiences of receiving clinical supervision online, and to determine specific gaps in the literature. Five themes emerged within the literature review: comparison of telesupervision with in-person supervision; challenges of telesupervision; benefits of telesupervision; components of effective telesupervision and supervisor characteristics. Overall, evidence suggests that supervisory relationship is the key factor in quality and efficacy of supervision, regardless of delivery modality. Recommendations are made for practice, including training both supervisors and supervisees in telesupervision, and future research directions are discussed.KEYWORDS: Clinical supervisionTelesupervisionCounsellingPsychotherapyOnline therapy Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementData sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.Additional informationNotes on contributorsKaren RatcliffeKaren Ratcliffe is a BACP Accredited integrative counsellor and clinical supervisor working in private practice and a university staff counselling service. Her main area of interest is supervision, the research focus of both her BSc in Cognitive Behavioural Therapeutic Approaches and MA in Consultative Supervision.Greta Kaluzeviciute-MoretonGreta Kaluzeviciute, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Vilnius University, Institute of Psychology, and Associate Lecturer at University of Derby, College of Health, Psychology and Social Care. Her work primarily focuses on knowledge generation methods in the field of psychotherapy, with a particular focus on the case study method and qualitative research. She has also recently joined a project investigating the effectiveness of supervisory relationships across different therapeutic modalities at Vilnius University.