ABSTRACT
“I will be evaluating your work as a counselor” may not only be difficult words for a new supervisee to hear; they may be difficult words for a supervisor (novice or seasoned) to say. The impression supervisees have of “being under” their supervisor’s “microscope” is understandable, and their anxiety about what their supervisor will “find” is to be expected. Supervisors may also struggle with conducting evaluations (see Gould & Bradley, 2001) and experience what Nelson, Barnes, Evans, and Triggiano (2008) referred to as “supervisor gatekeeping anxiety.” One explanation for this is that as counselors, supervisors may be more accustomed to and more comfortable with providing encouragement to other people (e.g., clients) and less familiar or comfortable with what they may construe as the authoritarian and dictatorial role of evaluator. Both supervisees and supervisors may therefore enter the evaluation process with trepidation because of unclear role expectations: the supervisee may not know the specific counselor behaviors that will be acceptable or regarded as favorable, and the supervisor may not know exactly how to deliver the constructive feedback supervisees need and often expect.
