Therapist Responsiveness: Mirrored in Supervisor Responsiveness

One explanation for the repeated finding of similar client outcomes across therapy approaches is that successful therapists shift their style to be responsive to clients' emerging needs. Following this reasoning, the primary educational function of supervision is to teach entry-level therapists to be maximally attuned and responsive to clients. Theorists have yet to elucidate how novice therapists learn to behave responsively to clients, however. This article introduces the concept of supervisor responsiveness, defined as accurate attunement and adaptation to a supervisee's emerging needs for knowledge, skills, and (inter)personal awareness with respect to the needs of the client(s) with whom he or she is working. Elaboration of the concept is provided with several case examples and a discussion of how responsiveness to clients is taught explicitly in supervision and mirrored in responsive supervisory interactions. The article concludes with practical implications as well as recommendations for future theorizing and research on supervisor responsiveness.