What Makes Supervision Helpful & Effective?
Effective supervision depends on a variety of factors including:
A good fit between supervisor and supervisee (personality, temperament, values, communication styles, etc.).
Consider what your preferences are in a supervisor and what makes you feel comfortable (age, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, ability, etc.) as this can be a good starting point.
Discussing boundaries, expectations, and ground rules in the beginning and ongoing to avoid miscommunication, misunderstandings, and unmet needs/wants.
A strong collaborative supervision relationship based on sharing power, shared values, making meaning, empathy, direct communication, and more.
Balance between support and challenge, validation and constructive feedback, etc.
What’s The Goal of Clinical Supervision?
To protect clients from harm and ineffective therapy
To provide a third ear or outside perspective on client cases
To help therapists do their best work with clients through refinement of skills, orientation, and interventions
To help therapists with the basics of psychotherapy (ethics, documentation, diagnosis, risk assessment, ending/termination/discharge, skills and interventions, treatment planning, etc.)
To help therapists become more competent and confident as they become independently licensed
Definitions
“Supervision is a disciplined, tutorial process wherein principles are transformed into practical skills, with four overlapping foci: administrative, evaluative, clinical, and supportive” (Powell & Brodsky, 2004, p. 11).
“Supervision is an intervention provided by a senior member of a profession to a more junior member or members. … This relationship is evaluative, extends over time, and has the simultaneous purposes of enhancing the professional functioning of the more junior person(s); monitoring the quality of professional services offered to the clients that she, he, or they see; and serving as a gatekeeper of those who are to enter the particular profession” (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004, p. 8).
Supervision is “a social influence process that occurs over time, in which the supervisor participates with supervisees to ensure quality of clinical care. Effective supervisors observe, mentor, coach, evaluate, inspire, and create an atmosphere that promotes self-motivation, learning, and professional development. They build teams, create cohesion, resolve conflict, and shape agency culture, while attending to ethical and diversity issues in all aspects of the process. Such supervision is key to both quality improvement and the successful implementation of consensus- and evidence-based practices” (CSAT, 2007, p. 3).
What Makes Supervision Helpful & Effective?
For Supervisors
An active listener
Open and curious
Open to feedback and toward growth
Provides direct, helpful, and specific feedback
Adaptable and flexible
Understands how power, privilege, and difference shapes the supervision relationship and dynamics and brings this up
Honest when they are unable to help the supervisee and offers resources or connections to other contacts/people
Repairing ruptures and disagreements as they arise
Regularly attends training and education on providing effective supervision
Understands the role of a supervisor
Adheres to their profession’s code of ethics
Offers a consistent schedule for supervision meetings and offers backup when they cancel, are ill, and/or on vacation
For Supervisees
Ready to discuss topics
Open and curious
Open to feedback and toward growth
Provides direct feedback
Asks for what they need
Does the work outside of supervision
Is honest with themselves through self-reflection and self-understanding
Practices self compassion
Understands the role of a supervisee
Adheres to their profession’s code of ethics
Attends supervision as agreed upon and notifies when they will be absent due to illness or vacation
What’s The Role of a Supervisor?
Educator & Teacher
Aids in development of counseling knowledge and skills by identifying learning needs, determining counselor strengths, promoting self-awareness, and transmitting knowledge for practical use and professional growth.
Supervisors are teachers, trainers, and professional role models.
Consultant
Provides case consultation and review, monitoring performance, counseling the counselor regarding job performance, and assessing counselors.
Support & Coach
In this supportive role, supervisors provide morale building, assess strengths and needs, suggest varying clinical approaches, model, cheer-lead, and prevent burnout.
For entry-level counselors, the supportive function is critical.
Mentor
The experienced supervisor mentors and teaches the supervisee through role modeling, facilitates the counselor's overall professional development and sense of professional identity, and trains the next generation of supervisors.