The Effect of Group Supervision on the Psychological Counseling Self-Efficacy Levels of Psychological Counseling Candidates

Abstract

Psychological counseling skills are the most important part of the psychological counseling profession. Psychological counseling candidates have the opportunity of performing these professional skills previously learned theoretically within the practice course of psychological counseling with another person during their undergraduate education and they receive supervision support for these practices. This study presents mixed-pattern research examining the effect of group supervision on the psychological counseling self-efficacy of psychological counselor candidates. Quantitative data were obtained from Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scale and qualitative data was obtained from the evaluation reports of the psychological counselor candidates. The quantitative findings show that group supervision is effective on all the subscales (exploration, insight, action, conflicts in relationships and client problems) of psychological counseling self-efficacy. The qualitative results backing up these findings prove that the responses of the participants can be divided into four categories of emotions, professional development, boosters, and difficulties. As a result, the findings of this research showed that the group supervision carried out in the individual psychological counseling course positively affected the psychological counseling self-efficacy perceptions of the psychological counselor candidates. Based on these findings, it has been suggested to take into consideration the improvement of the self-efficacy levels of psychological counselor candidates as well as the acquision of professional skills in counselor education.