What do excellent psychotherapy supervisors do

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These cookies do not store any personal information. If you think they are going to be a good fit, ask to see a draft of the contract. Review the contract in detail and make sure you are comfortable with and understand all the verbiage. Ask questions if you need anything clarified.

A good clinical supervisor will have a process and policy for any complaints or concerns you have during the supervision process. You want a supervisor that is willing to work collaboratively with you to address any questions you may have and take steps to move forward; even if that means with a different supervisor.

I contacting several therapists I found online and met a few for coffee. My clinical supervisor was and is a great fit for me. I still seek supervision and consultation from her regularly and what started out as a great supervision relationship has turned into an amazing collaboration with a colleague.

Great supervision is too important to not take seriously or to leave to chance. Finding your happily ever after is possible and it all starts with finding a great clinical supervisor.

To learn more about Motivo and other great advice about online clinical supervision , join the newsletter below. Privacy Policy. Terms of Use. How finding the right clinical supervisor is sorta like dating. Need help finding a clinical supervisor? Motivo connects new therapists with experienced clinical supervisors.

Plus, it's completely online! Click below to get started. Find a clinical supervisor. That said, these are the top 6 qualities to look for in a clinical supervisor: Top 6 Qualities of a Great Clinical Supervisor 1. Ethical Obviously, you want to look for a clinical supervisor that is ethical in their therapy practice as well as how they handle supervision situations, conflict of interests, etc. Questions to ask your potential clinical supervisor: Has there ever been a time when you faced an ethical dilemma with a supervisee?

If so, how did you handle it? How familiar are you with our state rules regarding reporting, duty to warn, etc? Professional In addition to practicing ethical behavior, you want a clinical supervisor that displays professional behavior. Nobody likes a boring date… Questions to ask your potential clinical supervisor: How do you structure our supervision time?

How much time will we spend on case review, clinical skill development, self of the therapist, etc? How will I be billed or invoiced for your time? I also believe that our clients have a right to expect that we do undertake ongoing professional development at all levels, remaining up to date and aware of new trends. First, supervision is a central form of support, where we can focus on our own difficulties as a worker as well as have our supervisor share some of the responsibility for our work with the clients.

Second, supervision forms part of our continual learning and development as workers, including eventually helping us to learn how to be supervisors. A good supervisor can also help us to use our own resources better, manage our work load and challenge our inappropriately patterned ways of coping.

We think that, if we are helping clients take more change of their own lives, it is essential that we are doing the same. You might imagine that working with a counselling supervisor would be like having a yearly review with your boss: when you are given targets to achieve, told what training you must attend, and informed whether or not you get a pay rise.

However, counselling supervision is very different. A supervisor is a qualified counsellor, with additional qualifications in supervision and considerable practice experience. As a student, you would typically see your supervisor for 1. It is important to keep records of when you see your supervisor and for how long; without this, the client hours you have accumulated might not be counted by your awarding body. Formative i. Normative i.

Restorative i. If this is the case, then the supervisor might suggest that the counsellor accesses their own therapy to look at issues in their lives. Understanding models of supervision can help us get the best out of our supervision, informing what we take to our supervisor. Having a common language can support us to work more cooperatively and collegially together. One model that is used widely is that by Shohet and Hawkins, as described in their book Supervision in the Helping Professions Open University Press, This model is popular not only in counselling and psychotherapy but also in coaching, social work and support work.

Most supervision takes place on a one-to-one basis, but you can also have group supervision. For example, the BACP allows you to claim half the time if there are up to four people in the group. For groups of more than four, you have to divide the amount of time by the number of people so for two hours of supervision, a group of six could claim 20 minutes each.

Peer supervision again involves working in a group, but without the presence of a qualified supervisor. Peer supervision is usually a reciprocal arrangement involving peers working together to help each other learn and develop. When individuals lead their own supervision processes in this way, it can be difficult to maintain the quality and effectiveness over time, and so is often seen as a supplement to — rather than substitute for — supervision with a qualified and experienced supervisor.

By Dr. Bernard, J. Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision. Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions. Geldard, D. Hawkins, P. Supervision in the Helping Professions. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash. Many counselling membership and professional regulatory bodies and associations state and require that for a professional counsellor to work ethically, they must attend regular supervision, to review and justify the quality and effectiveness of their professional work.

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