The seasoned supervisorchallenges, models, and lessons learned

Résumé

When trainees and young professionals who are involved in applied sport psychology (SP) start working with clients, they initiate a demanding adaptation process. This requires the development of various competencies in order to cope with real-life situations, since their success as a practitioner will be determined largely by their performance, rather than how much they know (Brown, 2009). Therefore, supervision programs are created to facilitate this process, which Van Raalte and Andersen (2000) described as a long-term interpersonal relationship designed to foster the growth and development of a trainee’s skills as a helping professional. Supervision is a useful tool to complete the training of sport psychologists. However, despite its importance, there is still limited literature and research on how novice professionals mature into experienced or senior professionals (Wylleman, Harwood, Elbe, Reints, & de Caluwé, 2009), compared to the interest in common topics in sport psychology (i.e., psychological skills). The process of developing professional competencies requires time and dedication to move through the different stages. Tod, Andersen, and Marchant (2011) found that several studies indicated: (a) trainees often adopt rigid “expert” problem-solving approaches to service delivery when they begin to interact with clients; (b) afterwards, with time and experience, some focus on developing relationships with clients and adapting wider and more fl exible interventions to suit athletes’ needs; and (c) practitioners become more coherent with their beliefs and values with experience.