Culturally competent supervision across the helping profession

This quantitative research study examined the relationship between cultural competence, cultural humility, broaching, and supervisors' self-reported perception of their working supervisory alliance. This research study examined the differences in cultural competence and the level of cultural humility used in broaching among clinical supervisors who hold the National Board for Certified Counselors Approved Clinical Supervisor credential compared to those who do not hold this credential. The participant pool for this research study consisted of supervisors who work in the following fields within the helping profession: Marriage and Family Therapy, Mental Health Counseling, Social Work, Addictions, School Counseling, and Rehabilitation Counseling.

This study involved 197 counseling supervisors across the United States. The statistical analyses were completed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), with AMOS used to conduct the Missing Completely at Random (MCAR) test, Kendall's tau-b, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the path analysis. Results of this study revealed that there is a positive and statistically significant correlation between multicultural supervision practices and the supervisor supervisee working alliance. Results also indicate that there is no significant difference between those who do and those who do not hold NBCC ACS credentialing in terms of cultural competence. Recommendations for supervisors include establishing a supervisory relationship that considers cultural factors (i.e., language, religion, customs, values, and beliefs) and obtaining the ACS credential due to its ability to identify supervisors with cultural competence.