The Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia, makes the recommendation that if you are looking for a supervisor, the following questions apply:
- Is your supervisor acceptable to the Member Association that you belong to or wish to join?
- Is your supervisor on the CAPA or PACFA Register or another register of reputable standing?
- Does your supervisor have an appropriate qualification and more than 5 years experience in counselling and/or psychotherapy?
Many supervisors are informed by the models of therapy they use in their own practice and extrapolating therapy theory to supervision theory is a useful approach. Yet using therapy theory as a sole lens for supervision leads to missing important information and can lead to thinking about supervisees in therapeutic ways.
Drawing on Bernard & Goodyear's (2007) categories of organising the main models used by supervision theorists and researchers, I utilise the developmental approaches and the social role models to construct with you an eclectic/integrationist approach to supervision. This means I employ an integrally informed model based on Wilber's (2000) theory in combination with Miller, Hubble & Duncan's (2008) methods. An integral approach incorporates a wide spectrum of therapy models, developmental theories and accounts for social, cultural and spiritual influences in therapy and supervision. Wilber's AQAL framework also entails acknowledging the varied levels of competence we've developed in our multiple intelligences, informing a comprehensive approach to my supervision work.
My aim as a supervisor is to help you develop your own unique perspectives and approaches in your clinical work, so as to enhance the service you provide for your clients. This can be maximised by encouraging you to get direct feedback from your clients about the outcomes they wish to achieve by working with you, in addition to getting their ongoing feedback about how they experience the working alliance the two of you are co-creating. The principles which govern my supervision work are:
- To tailor supervision to you as an individual
- To set up clear contracts
- To operate from a coherent framework
- To ensure my supervision method matches the content of supervision
- To consider your developmental level, cognitive and learning style as a therapist
- To assess skills on an ongoing basis
- To evaluate outcomes.
Bernard, J. & Goodyear, R. (2007). Supervision Models. Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision (4th edition). Ohio: Merrill, pp77-108.
Miller, S., Hubble, M., & Duncan, B. (2008). Supershrinks: Learning from the Field's Most Effective Practitioners. In Psychotherapy in Australia, 14(4), 14-22.
Wilber, K. (2000). Integral Psychology : Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy, Shambhala, Boston & London.