School counseling site supervisors: Their perceptions of effective characteristics and practices in the state of Texas

Abstract

School counselors play a vital role in shaping children’s social and emotional welfare. They are often asked to perform other functions, such as providing supervision services to local graduate school counseling students. Although certified school counselors complete counseling coursework as part of their master’s degree studies, many may never receive any supervisory education informing their supervisory practices. This study examined the perceptions of seven current school counseling site mentors (SCSM). The current study focused on defining effective characteristics and behaviors of SCSM and understanding what informed their supervision practices. The findings resulted in five major themes for each of the research questions. Even though study participants thought there were various effective characteristics and behaviors of site mentors, SCSM advocated strongly about needing a better framework to provide future counselors’ supervision. Implications and inferences for future studies are discussed.