This worksheet is from the Peer Professional Employer Toolkit.
The Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory (SWAI) is a well-established instrument1. A brief version is presented on this worksheet.2 This inventory is to be completed by the supervisor following sessions with the peer professional. Consider the inventory as an informal way to self-assess your practice, then openly discuss your results with the peer professional and collaboratively consider ways to enhance the alliance. Keep in mind, these results only offer a snapshot of the interaction and should not be generalized to global supervision practice with all staff. Nonetheless, regular use of the inventory may spark improvements to the alliance with the peer professional and with other staff.
Instructions: Print this worksheet. Using the 1 (almost never) to 7 (almost always) response scale provided, respond to the following items based on today’s supervision session.
| SWAI-Supervisor Version | Almost Never | Rarely | Occasionally | Sometimes | Often | Very Often | Almost Always |
|---|
| (1) My supervisee appears to be comfortable working with me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| (2) I welcome my supervisee’s explanations about the participants’ behavior. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| (3) I treat my supervisee like a colleague in supervisory sessions. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| (4) My supervisee works with me on specific goals in the supervisory session. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| (5) My style is to carefully and systematically consider the material that my supervisee brings to supervision. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Interpretation: Score ranges from 5 to 35 with higher scores indicating a stronger alliance.
1 Efstation, J. F., Patton, M. J., & Kardash, C. M. (1990). Measuring the working alliance in counselor supervision. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 37, 322-329.
2 Sabella, S., Schultz, J., & Landon, T. (2019). Validation of a brief form of the supervisory working alliance inventory. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 63. Access from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333168709_Validation_of_a_Brief_Form_of_the_Supervisory_Working_Alliance_Inventory
