Therapist Self-Efficacy Developmental Profiles, Supervisory Working Alliance, and Client Outcome: A Growth Mixture Analysis

The aims of this study were to investigate the overall, and subgroups of, developmental profiles of the three domains of counseling self-efficacy (CSE) among beginning therapist trainees in China. Further, the associations between the different CSE developmental profiles and the trainees’ perceived supervisory working alliance (SWA) and their clients’ reported symptom distress were also examined. Participants included 258 beginning therapist trainees in a master’s level counseling training program in China, who completed measures of CSE in three waves throughout the practicum and rated SWA after every supervision session. Clients rated their symptom distress before and after treatment. Growth mixture analysis results indicated that overall, trainees showed the highest initial confidence in helping skills use, followed by in session management, and last in handling counseling challenges, and there were significant increases in all three aspects of self-efficacy. Second, four subgroups of developmental profiles emerged, including beginning moderate with no changes, beginning moderate with moderate increases, beginning low with marked increases, and beginning high with partial minor increase. Third, the beginning moderate with no changes subgroup showed lower ratings of SWA and the lowest average client symptom improvement. Recommendations for future research and implications for training are presented.