Counselor Posttraumatic Growth Linked to Harmful Clinical Supervision

Clinical supervision is the primary method to educate and train professional counselors (Baltrinic & Wachter Morris, 2020). While clinical supervision tends to be positive and constructive, harmful clinical supervision occurs. As defined by Ellis et al. (2014a), harmful clinical supervision includes any inappropriate action or inaction by the supervisor that causes psychological, emotional, or physical harm or trauma to the supervisee. Research on harmful clinical supervision is growing (Cook & Ellis, 2021; Ellis et al., 2014a, 2015), but the focus remains on how counselors are traumatized by these experiences (Ellis et al., 2017; McNamara et al., 2017). This qualitative study takes a novel approach using the lens of Tedeschi and Calhoun’s (1996) theory of posttraumatic growth to explore the positive effects of harmful clinical supervision. A sample of 12 licensed counselors completed semi-structured interviews to share their experiences. Five main themes emerged through data analysis: Confusion, Support and Encouragement, Safety and Protection, Financial Security, and Professional Duty. These findings align with the five growth categories described by Tedeschi and Calhoun, but an additional category, Professional Duty, was also identified. This study answers the research questions by providing insight into the context and process of counselor posttraumatic growth. Implications for the profession, study limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.