Professional supervision

Assessment | Biopsychology | Comparative | Cognitive | Developmental | Language | Individual differences | Personality | Philosophy | Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |

Clinical: Approaches · Group therapy · Techniques · Types of problem · Areas of specialism · Taxonomies · Therapeutic issues · Modes of delivery · Model translation project · Personal experiences ·

---

Supervision is used in counselling, psychotherapy and other mental health disciplines as well as many other professions engaged in working with people. It consists of the practitioner meeting regularly with another professional, not necessarily more senior, but normally with training in the skills of supervision, to discuss casework and other professional issues in a structured way. This is often known as clinical or counselling supervision or consultation. The purpose is to assist the practitioner to learn from his or her experience and progress in expertise, as well as to ensure good service to the client or patient.

Clinical supervision is used in many disciplines in the British health service. Registered allied health professionals such as occupational therapists,[1] physiotherapists,[2] dieticians,[3] speech and language therapists [4] and art,[5] music and drama therapy drama therapists are now expected to have regular clinical supervision. C. Waskett (2006) has written on the application of solution focused supervision skills to either counselling or clinical supervision work.

Some practitioners (eg art, music and drama therapists, psychologists, and mental health occupational therapists) have used this practice for many years. In other disciplines the practice may be a new concept. For NHS nurses, the use of clinical supervision is expected as part of good practice.[6]

Practising members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy[7] are bound to have supervision for at least 1.5 hours a month. Students and trainees must have it at a rate of one hour for every eight hours of client contact.

The concept is also well used in psychology, social work, the probation service and other workplaces.

Models or approaches to supervision

There are many different ways of developing supervision skills which can be helpful to the clinician or practitioner in their work. Specific models or approaches to both counselling supervision and clinical supervision come from different historical strands of thinking and beliefs about relationships between people.

Main article: Models of Clinical supervision

Bibliography

Key texts – Books

1. P Hawkins, R Shohet. Supervision in the Helping Professions: an organisational, group and organisational approach; Open University Press, Maidenhead, 2nd ed 2003
2. S Page, V Wosket. Supervising the Counsellor: a cyclical model; Routledge, London & New York, 1995
3. F Inskipp, B Proctor. The Art, craft and tasks of Counselling supervision, Part 1 – making the most of supervision, Cascade Publications 1993, and Part 2 – becoming a supervisor, 1995

Additional material - Papers

1. C Waskett. The pluses of solution-focused supervision. , Vol 6, No 1.
2. C Waskett. The SF Journey, in Therapy Today, March 2006, Vol 17, No 2, pp 40-42

External links

The pluses of solution-focused supervision

[[Category:]]