IJSP Number 5, 2023

69 international trainees when they recognize the impact and use that self-awareness to improve self and own experience. Third, supervisor’s self-disclosure, use of self, and modeling were reported to be a helpful strategy in supervision. Many supervisors (#1, 3, 6, 7) reported their own experiences such as “I apologized and affirmed the supervisee…,” modeling emotional vulnerability, and sharing with the supervisees their own clinical mistakes in the past. The idea of use of self in supervision was one of the most commonly reported responses from the clinical supervisors. This subtheme mainly captured supervisors’ utilization of their own sociocultural identities and personal experiences in supervision. Supervisors (#4 and #10) recognized its effect in strengthening the supervisory relationship and increasing their credibility as a supervisor. The next subtheme is that many supervisors shared the need to assist in the development of the supervisee’s personal and professional identity, instead of only focusing on clients’ clinical issues. Examples included challenging and helping them develop one’s unique identity as an international trainee as well as bi-cultural competence; actively exploring an international trainee’s value and how trainee’s experience of their own culture has impacted the shaping of their unique value and identity. One supervisor (#7) particularly shared their experiences of processing with their supervisee and normalizing the developmental process with regard to their acculturation level (e.g., parallel to different culture/subgroup/generation), and encouraging the supervisee to continue working on educating themselves and collecting more knowledge about the culture of their client’s background. Furthermore, some supervisors (#4 and #10) highlighted the importance of differentiating and assessing clinical abilities vs. cultural and language barriers. Supervisors’ cultural humility was identified in this theme as a critical factor for providing effective supervision (n = 6, 60%). An example of supervisor’s (#6) cultural humility was shared by a participant, “each supervisory relationship with an international trainee is a multicultural experience of learning…I approach the supervisee with cultural humility, to learn about his/her/their unique background.” Many supervisors recognized the importance of knowing their international supervisee’s culture. An example was that (#8): “I always do my homework if I have a supervisee from a different cultural/country background than myself…I believe it's my job as a supervisor. It brings in so much more insight and conceptualization for both supervisee's clinical work and relationship with supervisor which is very important during the supervision process.” Some supervisors highlighted the importance of approaching an international supervisee with cultural humility to learn about the supervisee’s uniqueness, even when the supervisor also had familiarity with the supervisee’s cultural background. Several supervisors offered their input regarding this area. For instance, a supervisor (#6) shared that “while I might know some things about the culture and/or country [where my supervisee comes from], I don't yet know anything about my trainee's experiences and perspectives.” Others stated (#5 and #7) that “when I assume that I know enough, often my assumption interferes the understanding the specific individual experiences of my international supervisees” and that “I think familiarity