Working with conflict in clinical supervision: Wise supervisors' perspectives.

Eight female and 4 male supervisors identified by professional peers as highly competent were interviewed about experiences of conflict in supervision and their dependable strategies for managing it. Highly competent supervisors were open to conflict and interpersonal processing, willing to acknowledge shortcomings, developmentally oriented, and willing to leam from mistakes. They believed in creating strong supervisory alliances, discussing evaluation early on, modeling openness to conflict, and providing timely feedback. Dependable strategies included contextualizing conflicts in light of developmental and environmental factors, seeking consultation with colleagues, self-coaching, processing conflicts, accentuating supervisee strengths, interpreting parallel processes, and withdrawing from supervisee dynamics.