A process study of student supervisory phone interventions in live supervision of marital therap

Research in marriage and family therapy training and supervision has shown an increase in live supervision behind a one-way mirror as the major modality for brief treatment. What has been needed is research of different forms of live supervision, such as the use of phone interventions. The purpose of this study was to examine the sequence of events likely to occur surrounding phone interventions offered by beginning supervisors during live supervision of marital therapy. Data were collected from videotapes of the first four marital sessions from eight cases, totalling 32 sessions from which 95 therapist-couple interaction sequences were derived. Four student supervisors and four student therapists were responsible for two cases each.;The Supervisory Phone Intervention Coding System was developed which identified specific contexts and responses potentially occurring around the phone intervention process. The coding system categorized and tracked sequential behaviors among supervisors, therapists and client couples. Self-report data were also collected from supervisors and therapists for comparison.;Descriptive analysis, including frequency counts and conditional probabilities, was used to describe which patterns emerged around delivery of phone interventions. Findings showed variability of sequences from Pre-Phone Context to Post Phone-in responses. Certain Brief Systems interventions (problem formation, solutions formation, prompt for meta-perspective) were implemented most often by supervisors and were followed the majority of time with complete cooperation and agreement responses by therapists and couples. Therapists responded with complete cooperation the majority of time to phone interventions containing positive statements and those lasting longer than 30 seconds. Qualitative responses regarding efficient phone interventions supported the quantitative data. Efficient interventions included consideration of the level of therapist experience; clarity, conciseness, and timing of phone interventions; flexible and supportive relationship between supervisors and therapists; and utilizing a theoretically consistent approach.;Future research should include a larger sample size to provide a greater variety of intervention sequences to test the discriminant validity of this coding system and determine if particular sequences meet significance. The findings have implications for the training of beginning supervisors as to the appropriate timing and efficient implementation toward increasing therapeutic leverage isomorphic with therapists and couples.