Study's full title: Compassion in Clinical Psychology

University Affiliation: Cairnmillar Institute and University of Southern Queensland

Ethics Approval/Reference Number: Cairnmillar Institute Project Number (Lead HREC): 2025022601 | University of Southern Queensland Project Number: ETH2024-1180

Principal Researcher: Stacey Freebody

Supervisor(s): Stacey Freebody, Prof Jon Mason

Co-authored: Stacey Freebody, Prof Jon Mason - Cairnmillar Institute Dr Samantha Brown, Dr Renee Ireland, Prof Gavin Beccaria - University of Southern Queensland Caitlin Stark - Private Practice

Student Researchers: Maddy Dunn, Ashley Carmichael, Burcu Katicelik, Natasha Gerente and Saniya Setia - Cairnmillar Institute

Purpose of study: This project examines compassion in clinical supervision across varied allied health disciplines (Psychology, Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology.)

An online qualitative survey will explore: how supervisors and early career supervisees view the role of compassion in supervision; facilitators and barriers to compassion in supervision and how supervisors balance compassion with accountability and performance standards.

This project aims to gather existing community perspectives and explores the questions: a) What is compassion in supervision? b) Does it help early career clinicians?

Valuable contributions to our study will aid professional understanding of the role of compassion in supervision within allied health. We anticipate that summarised study results will also allow us to make recommendations to improve supervision to in turn improve clinician wellbeing.

Participation Details: Experienced Supervisors (registered in Australia as an Occupational Therapist and have 3 or more years of supervisory experience), or Early Career Supervisees (registered in Australia as an Occupational Therapist and full registration was gained within the last 0-3 years.)

Survey Link: https://cairnmillar.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_06uL5L1J0hraXwa

Contact Details: Stacey Freebody - stacey.freebody@cairnmillar.edu.au; (03) 9813 3400

End date for survey: 01/06/26