Attachment style and its relationship to working alliance in the supervision of British clinical psychology trainees

Abstract

Although the supervisory relationship is thought to be critical in training clinical psychologists, little is known about factors affecting the supervisory alliance. We conducted an Internet survey of British clinical doctoral trainees (N = 259) in which participants rated their supervisory working alliance, parental style during childhood, pathological adult attachment behaviours and attachment style for themselves and their supervisors. Trainees' ratings of the working alliance were associated with perceptions of supervisors' attachment style, but not with perceptions of trainees' own attachment styles. Path analysis supported a causal chain linking parental indifference, compulsive self-reliance, insecure supervisor attachment style and lower ratings of the working alliance. Our results broadly replicate data from a US sample and suggest that attachment theory is helpful in understanding clinical supervisory processes.