Taiwanese International Students in Clinical Supervision: A Phenomenological Study

<p>The population of international students has continued to grow in the past two decades and become an important segment of U.S. university enrollment (Ng & Smith, 2001). Altogether, there is limited literature that is devoted to international students’ experience in clinical supervision and merely any international students studies specifically focused on the Taiwanese international student subgroup. This study examined the experiences of Taiwanese international students in clinical supervision. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to extract the phenomenon of participants’ lifeworld and qualitative data were collected from individual semi-structured interviews with Taiwanese international students (N=6). Data analysis led to four primary themes: <em>layered power differential, invisibility, language salience in acculturation, and humanizing practices</em>. Participants shared in-depth reflections about the challenges they confronted when their unique cultural identities were often overlooked in supervision, where a salient part of themselves became invisible to others and dismissed. As participants progressed in their course of training, the parallel process of their professional growth and acculturation further supported their professional identity formation process as a psychologist in training. The humanizing practices they received in supervision became a nourishing foundation, that participants will be able to pass on to future trainees. The findings of the current study provided directions for supervisors and training programs when working with Taiwanese international students to offer more culturally responsive supervisory interventions and support.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year

2023

Author dc:creator

• Hsiao, Joey Chiao-Yin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Patton Garriott
• Nick Cutforth
• Lisa Brownstone
• Kenneth Wang

• Clinical supervision
• International student
• Taiwanese
• Counseling Psychology
• Multicultural Psychology
• Other Psychology
• Psychology
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

English (eng)

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2300

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-3282