The Art of Helping in Supervised Practice:

Abstract

This investigation examined skills and relationships in supervised practice to test Shulman's interactional helping theory on the basis of client outcomes. A correlational design was used to determine association among weekly worker ratings of supervisory skills and relationships, and client goal attainment and generalized contentment across sixteen weeks of practice in a community mental health setting. One pattern of findings lent modest and conditional support to subsets of Shulman's theory, but a challenge to the general theory was established by evidence that supervisory skills and relationships have independent associations with client outcomes. Implications were discussed for theory, research, and practice.