The purpose of clinical supervision is to monitor and ensure the welfare of clients, promote the development of supervisees' clinical and professional identity, evaluate the competence of supervisees and fulfill requirements for licensure. It is my belief that as a supervisor I must meet the developmental needs of the supervisee. I often alternate between roles based on the needs of the supervisee. In the beginning, I may take a more direct feedback approach, and as the supervisee gains more experience, my role may change into a more collaborative approach.
In my supervision, I require that students are directly observed by myself while providing counseling services to clients (known as "tele-supervision"). This is to occur one time every three months on a date agreed upon between the supervisor and the supervisee. Tele-supervision is to occur a total of eight times during the span of the two-year supervision experience. The supervisee is required to obtain written permission from their client prior to the tele-supervision taking place and have the signed document uploaded into the client's file.
During the course of completing 100 supervision hours there are two formats that can be implemented (upon availability):
- Individual Clinical Supervision: A primary supervisory relationship where the clinical work of the supervisee is under the direct, ongoing, and careful supervision of the supervisor. This will take place either in person or virtually as agreed upon by the supervisor and supervisee.
- Group Clinical Supervision: An adjunctive supervisory relationship where the clinical work of the supervisee is discussed in a group setting. The focus of group supervision is to provide additional support, direction, and feedback within the context of a group of professionals practicing similar types of clinical work. This will take place either in person or virtually as agreed upon by the supervisor and the supervisees.