Card-sorting as a tool for communicating the relative importance of supervisor interventions Chun-I Li a , Scott Fairhurst b , Charles Chege b , Elizabeth H. Jenks b , Yuying Tsong c , Dianne Golden b , Lorraine White d , Adam Andreassen e , Sheryn Scott f , Mark J. Souris f , Sheila Santiago Schmitt g , and Allison Hefley a a Department of Psychology, University of La Verne, La Verne, California, United States; b Pacific Clinics, Pasadena, California, United States; c Department of Human Services, California State University, Fullerton, California, United States; d School of Professional Psychology, University of the Rockies, Denver, Colorado, United States; e Heart of America Psychological Training Consortium, Springfield, Missouri, United States; f Department of Graduate Psychology, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California, United States; g Correct Care, LLC/South Florida State Hospital, Pembroke Pines, Florida, United States ABSTRACT A card-sorting activity was used to stimulate communication about the perceived relative importance of supervisor interven- tions within a supervisory dyad. Pairs of supervisors and supervisees ranked 10 cards of supervisor interventions in the order of perceived importance and conversed about their rankings. Results indicated that supervisees perceived feedback and correction as more important than supervisors, whereas supervisors perceived allowing for debriefing and validating supervisee’s feelings as more important than supervisees. Dyads agreed that the activity was fun, easy to do, and would contribute to a climate of honest feedback, facilitate the working alliance, and help prevent unspoken negative dynamics. KEYWORDS Supervision dyads; supervisor interventions; supervision priorities Introduction Supervision is one of the most frequent professional activities performed by mental health professionals (Bernard & Goodyear, 2014). It employs a collaborative relationship through which supervisees develop professional knowledge, values, skills, and identity (Falender et al., 2004). Supervisors play a major role in monitoring the quality of client care and fostering supervisees’ professional development (Bernard & Goodyear, 2014). Not all supervision is helpful, however. Harmful supervision can cause supervisees to experience psychological trauma, health problems, functional impairment, and resignation from the mental health career (Ellis et al., 2014; Nelson & Friedlander, 2001). Therefore, it is critical to the helping professions to understand what elements constitute successful supervision. Mutuality, open communication, and contracting Numerous authors (e.g., Greenberg, 1980; Osborn & Davis, 1996; Phillips & Kanter, 1984) have pointed to the importance of mutuality, open © 2016 Taylor & Francis CONTACT Chun-I Li cli@laverne.edu Department of Psychology, University of La Verne, 1950 Third Street, La Verne, CA 91750, USA. THE CLINICAL SUPERVISOR 2016, VOL. 35, NO. 1, 80–97 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07325223.2016.1165641 Downloaded by [California State University Fullerton], [Yuying Tsong] at 15:23 22 April 2016