Watkins C Edward, Hook Joshua N, Zhang Hansong, Wilcox Melanie M, Winkeljohn Black Stephanie, DeBlaere Cirleen, Davis Don E, Owen Jesse
Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton (Watkins, Hook); Institute of Psychotherapy, Psychological Counselling, and Clinical Supervision, Reșița, Romania (Watkins); Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Texas Woman's University, Denton (Zhang); Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany (Wilcox); Department of Psychological and Social Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg (Black); Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, Georgia State University, Atlanta (DeBlaere, Davis); Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Denver, Denver (Owen).
Am J Psychother. 2025 Jun 15;78(2):103-113. doi: 10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20240008. Epub 2025 Feb 20.
The first substantive article to address cultural humility in psychotherapy supervision appeared in a 2016 issue of this journal. The aim of this review is to update that 2016 article, providing a conceptual-practical and empirical status report about cultural humility's increasing integration into psychotherapy supervision.
A hybrid database-snowballing search process was used. Database searches were conducted by using PubMed and PsycInfo with the words "cultural humility" and "supervision." Backward and forward snowballing were also used to identify possible missed articles for inclusion.
Twenty-nine articles on cultural humility and supervision, all appearing since the original 2016 article, were identified. Seventeen articles were conceptual-practical, whereas 12 articles were empirical research studies. The conceptual-practical articles provided support for a cultural humility-supervision nexus via proposed models, supervision interventions, and case examples (e.g., demonstrating the facilitation of culturally informed work with minoritized supervisees). The research articles were similarly supportive, providing empirical data that indicated cultural humility's beneficial impact on supervision (e.g., making rupture repair more likely).
Since 2016, the host of supervisors who conceptualize about, practice, and research cultural humility in supervision have seemingly converged on one point: cultural humility is a supervision enhancer, contributing to both positive supervision processes and outcomes. It indeed appears that, where supervisor cultural humility goes, so too goes a strengthened supervisory alliance, heightened supervisee satisfaction, and increased supervisee self-disclosure. Based on this status report, the authors contend that supervisors could greatly benefit from learning about cultural humility and incorporating it into their supervisory practice.
