PREDICTORS OF SUPERVISOR ABILITY TO DETECT SUPERVISEE COUNTERTRANSFERENCE TOWARD A BISEXUAL CLIENT

Abstract

This study was a laboratory analogue examining the relationships among supervisor biphobia, supervisor countertransference (CT) reactions (to a supervisee's bisexual client), and supervisor accuracy of detection of a supervisee's CT to the bisexual client. Participants were 47 graduate and postgraduate level supervisors who listened to a 20 minute analogue counseling session in which a fictitious heterosexual male supervisee exhibits CT behaviors toward a bisexual male client, as judged by 5 experts in CT on the Inventory of Countertransference Behavior (Friedman & Gelso, 2000). Supervisors' ratings of the amount of CT behavior in the session were compared to the average of experts' ratings to determine supervisors' CT detection accuracy; supervisors' biphobia and CT were also assessed. Results suggested that higher supervisor biphobia predicted greater accuracy of detection of negative CT toward the bisexual client, although this result must be interpreted in the context of the low overall biphobia in the sample. Implications for research and practice are discussed.