COVID-19 and Beyond: Telesupervision Training Within the Supervision Competency

The COVID-19 pandemic produced a rapid and pervasive shift to provision of telepsychology services throughout health service psychology. Simultaneously, an equally rapid and pervasive shift to telesupervision of trainees has occurred, at all levels of graduate professional training. These shifts have clearly outpaced a much more gradual increase in training in telesupervision as part of the supervision competency. The authors provide an overview of the somewhat limited research on telesupervision, and propose rapid adoption of training in telesupervision for both trainees and supervisors. Several areas of research into telesupervision are proposed, including comparative efficacy and acceptance of telesupervision, the potential impact of information technology expertise on supervisory relationships, and potential differential impact of diversity factors in telesupervision as compared to in-person supervision. Public Significance Statement The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in increased use of telesupervision in health service psychology training, despite limited research and training specific to telesupervision. Continued research and incorporation of education and practice of telesupervision to develop trainees' supervision competency could help alleviate the gap between practice and training in telesupervision beyond the pandemic.