Appreciative Clinical Training

This article presents a training model that has been used for 4 years in a graduate program in clinical psychology. The specific goal of the training model is to encourage beginning supervisors to identify their character strengths, refocus their attention and memory on the origin of these strengths, and cultivate their character strengths in the service of the supervision relationship. The most common character strengths of a group of clinical psychology graduate students are explored and compared with the general population, because an understanding of the strengths of your students has implications for education and training. Qualitative data are also presented that reveals the following themes: the power of focusing on one's strengths, the value of a strength-based approach, the complexity of strength-based work, and the notion of strengths born from challenge. The purpose of this article is to present a model of supervision training that enhances effective supervision and encourages the use of character strengths in the service of the supervision relationship. Appreciative clinical training values affirm and highlight strengths in supervision relationships. The intention of appreciative clinical training is to facilitate the cultivation of strengths through a refo- cusing of attention and memory using assessment, reflective dia- logue, and appreciative inquiry. Refocusing of attention and mem- ory are key ingredients of positive interventions (Rashid, 2009), and in this model the shift is from a deficit-based to a strength- based focus of clinical inquiry or intervention. Appreciative clinical training is informed by the principles of Appreciate Inquiry (AI) (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 2000; Cooper- rider & Whitney, 1999; Whitney & Trosten-Bloom, 2010), insofar as it is an inquiry into supervision at its best, and suggests that if you want to transform a situation or a relationship, focusing on strengths is often more effective than focusing on problems. Ap- preciative clinical training questions what you want more of in your supervision relationships and assumes that you will move in the direction of the questions you ask. We use strength-based questions as the focus of our inquiry—for example, When therapy or supervision is going really well, which of your strengths shine through? What creates nourishing, connected, and focused therapy and supervision relationships? What facilitates independence and self-sufficiency in your clinical relationship? —in contrast to a deficit-based focus of clinical inquiry, for example, What is the problem you are having with your client? Where are you stuck? Can you tell me what is giving you the most trouble in this case? Strength-based approaches to supervision are a growing part of the field of clinical training. Falender and Shafranske (2004) note that one half of a professional psychologist's formal training comes in the form of supervision and propose a competency-based approach to enhance the skills of the supervisor and supervisee. Empirical evidence suggests that the use of strengths helps make progress toward goals and increases relationship proficiency (Lin- ley, Nielsen, Gillett, & Biswas-Diener, 2010), both of which are core competencies in the supervision relationship. In a study of law school students, Peterson and Peterson (2009) found that the use of one's top strengths leads to a decrease in depression and an increase in work-related satisfaction. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) found that visualizing one's best possible self leads to an