(ABSTRACT)
Creative supervision interventions are suggested to be supportive of mental
health supervisees' professional development. Yet, empirical evidence of the
utility of such interventions is limited. The purpose of this study was to explore
whether a creative intervention, specifically visual art, enhances clinical
supervision. Enhancement was operationalized using likert scaled questions to
measure: (1) participants' level of enjoyment of the art task intervention,
(2) participants' perceived level of benefit derived from the art task intervention,
and (3) how often participants used art tasks in counseling their own clients.
Additionally, "creativity" was correlated to the dependent variables. Creativity
was operationalized using the Barron-Welsh Art Scale and the Remote Associates
Test.
The art task interventions were administered in the clinical supervision of
master's-level counseling internship students at two Universities located in
the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Supervisees engaged in visual art exercises,
and subsequent discussions, during the spring 2003 semester of their internship
class.
Demographic information and likert-scaled responses measuring the dependent
variables were reported using percentages. Dependent variables were correlated
with creativity levels. Qualitative responses on the Exit Questionnaire were
summarized and reported. Results suggested that participants enjoyed and benefited
from supervision involving art tasks, and that a statistically significant relationship
exists between creativity (as measured by the Barron-Welsh Art Scale) and enjoyment
of the art tasks. While more participants overall used art in counseling their
clients after participating in the study, the number of times participants used
art tasks did not increase.
