Addressing Anxiety: Practitioners’ Examination of Mindfulness in Constructivist Supervision
Jennifer Scaturo Watkinson, Gayle Cicero, Elizabeth Burton
The Professional Counselor December 1, 2021 DOI: 10.15241/jsw.11.4.459 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Practitioner inquiry study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Practicum students (counselors-in-training) |
| Intervention | Mindfulness exercises |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Key points | The authors report that practicum students' experience of mindfulness in supervision centered on three themes: openness to the process, reflection and self-care, and attention to the doing. They conclude that supervision should balance mindfulness exercises focused on anxiety-related internal experiences with time for students to share stories and hear from peers. |
Abstract
It is widely documented that practicum students experience anxiety as a natural part of their counselor development. Within constructivist supervision, mindfulness exercises are used to help counselors-in-training (CITs) work with their anxiety by having them focus on their internal experiences. To inform and strengthen our practice, we engaged in a practitioner inquiry study to understand how practicum students experienced mindfulness as a central part of supervision. We analyzed 25 sandtray reflections and compared them to transcripts from two focus groups to uncover three major themes related to the student experience: (a) openness to the process, (b) reflection and self-care, and (c) attention to the doing. One key lesson learned was the importance of balancing mindfulness exercises to highlight the internal experiences related to anxiety while providing adequate opportunities for CITs to share stories and hear from peers during group supervision.