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.