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Judith Harrington, Ph.D., Clinical Supervisor
The Crisis Center
3600 8th Avenue South
Birmingham, AL
Program Description:
Turn what may be "stupervision" into supervision, with an emphasis on 'super' and 'vision.' This presentation will focus on core conditions for supervision, roles, functions and skills of supervisors, developmental models for both supervisees and supervisors, and models and methods for meeting supervision challenges.
Narrative Review:
Clinical supervision is an essential component of any agency or program providing counseling services. While it is often thought to be a legal requirement in the form of risk management and liability prevention, it can be and is encouraged to also be a resource and generator for staff and administrators alike. Clinical supervision may result in reduced burnout, creativity in resolving difficult cases, professional development and increased expertise, staff development, better clinical care of consumers, and shared leadership between supervisors, staff members and co-workers.
In some agencies clinical supervision has a reputation for being a "requirement," and even drudgery. While challenges which may be brought to clinical supervision may be "work," clinical supervision does not have to feel like work. Concepts shared in this program are intended to help staff, administrators, and volunteers who make use of clinical supervision.
While clinical supervision is not the same thing as counseling, there are many similarities. The core conditions of counseling, congruence, empathy, and unconditional positive regard, are modeled to counselors through the supervision experience. Holloway (1995) and others have referred to clinical supervisor as a "working alliance" with core factors which serve to make it a successful alliance. These factors include: structure and character of the working relationship; style of supervision including attractiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, and task orientation; social influence such as expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness; a working alliance including agreement of goals and tasks; and empathy, congruence, and unconditionality.
Literature about clinical supervision includes several developmental models for both supervisees and supervisors. One of the more cited developmental models on counselor development includes Stoltenberg's model for counselor complexity, which includes four stages: dependence on supervisor; dependency/autonomy conflict; conditional dependency; and master counselor. McPherson's developmental stages for supervisor development include: Supervisor in Title only; Supervisor in Function only, the Speculative Supervisor; the Mature Supervisor; and the Mentor.
Neufeldt (1999) and Bernard (1979) have postulated that the supervision experience can fall into three categories of approaches: Teacher/Learner; "Counselor"/Person; and Consultant/Consultee. Stenack & Dye have presented their research on over sixty microskills which fall into a teaching style, "counseling" style, and consulting style. Bradley (1989) summarized six theoretical approaches from which supervisors may work: Psychotherapeutic, Behavioral, Integrative, Systems, Person-Process, and Experiential.
Supervisors and supervisees in agencies are encouraged to define its supervision function as somehow different and distinctive from other functions such as administrative matters. Supervision sessions seem to be run best when protected with regular meeting times, both group and individual, with closed-door confidentiality, and with heightened awareness of role and function boundaries. The power to abuse is as equally present in the supervisor/supervisee relationship as it is in the counselor/client relationship, thus underscoring the importance of modeling.
Supervisors are encouraged to develop plans of supervision for themselves and to work closely with their supervisees with informed consent and a contract or plan for their development.