| This qualitative study builds upon prior research investigating predoctoral internship supervisee nondisclosure (Ladany, Hill, Corbett, & Nutt, 1996, Hess, 1999). Similar to earlier investigations of this subject (Ladany and Hess), this study limits its investigation to supervisees' supervision experience. This research expands beyond prior research that investigated the phenomenon of disclosure and withholding of interns while they were still involved in the context of predoctoral supervision. This retrospective study, using a grounded theory methodology, expands earlier work, by interviewing participants who had already successfully completed their internships at the time of the interviews. This process allows a retrospective conceptualization of earlier withheld events while participants were no longer involved in the evaluative supervision relationship. This research also expands earlier work by incorporating older participants, ages 46 to 60, to reflect the changing face of doctoral students. This research examines (a) reflection of withheld information following internship completion; (b) what influenced decisions to withhold; (c) how the decision to withhold is conceptualized following internship completion; and (d) how age influences both the supervisory relationship and withholding. Emerging themes from interview data related to safety, desire to learn, vulnerability, shame, and need to survive. Participants' decisions to withhold rest upon the delicate balance between their desire to learn and their need to survive. Desire to learn and need to survive are balanced upon participants' perception of safety in supervisor-supervisee relationships, which serves as the fulcrum between these two constructs.;Keywords: disclosure, nondisclosure, withholding, supervision, internship, grounded theory. |
