Components of supervisors' ratings of therapists' skillfulness.

A questionnaire was developed to assess the skillfulness of therapists from the perspective of the supervisor. This supervisor report yielded two scores: one for psychotherapeutic techniques and one for the educational alliance. These scores had high internal consistency and were relatively independent of one another. Ratings of proficiency in psychotherapeutic techniques accounted for 54% of the variance in supervisors' rating? of global skillfulness; educational alliance contributed an additional 12%. Compared with other supervisors, those who espoused self psychology based more of their appraisal of skill fulness on the trainee's use of the supervisory relationship.