The importance of clinical supervision for social workers, psychotherapists and counsellors
Supervision is an essential part of practice across disciplines whether you’re a social worker, occupational therapist or counsellor. Supervision aims to support new and seasoned mental health clinicians with a wide variety of areas and has many functions. It can be useful for those who work in an organisation to seek this externally, as well as internally.
Access supervision has also never been easier. Supporting many supervisees across Australia, and overseas, telehealth and video conferencing means therapists in regional areas such as the Central West to city areas can find a supervisor much more easily. This also helps if you have a specific area of therapy that you would like supervision for.
Beyond this, one key area for supervision is self-care and the need to critically reflect on the work we do. This provides an opportunity to be able to look at the difficulties we have as therapists in therapy, how to manage this and find ways to make progress when things might feel a bit, stuck! It also provides a space to unpack impacts of client load, work pressures and organisational shifts that can drastically impact our own wellbeing and capacity to be present for clients.
Having worked as a clinical lead over 6 headspace sites for several years, another area of focus is on legalities. This can involve responding to subpoenas, child protection concerns and reporting issues as well as navigating tricky issues with consent and release of information requests. These areas are often not black and white and can benefit with someone with experience to look over things for a second opinion and support. It also needs to be noted, this will shift and change with different state laws and reporting requirements that also need to be considered.
Supervision also aims to develop key practice skills. I often do this by reviewing with supervisee’s difficult client cases and ways we could do things differently. This can include both enhancing clinical skills in therapies, such as CBT or relational approaches, as well as the more nuanced dynamics and processes that arise in session that can make things challenging for the clinician. Over time, this aims to enhance clinical work and be able to respond more authentically in the moment, on the fly, as well as design interventions to suite client needs as we go.
Professional development is often another area that is addressed in detail. Each profession has different requirements that need to be considered, with Accredited Mental Health Social Workers, for example, needing to do additional hours in set areas to ensure continuing registration. This aside, supervision aims to discuss both professional development and career development, as many therapists I work with are looking into areas, they wish to specialise in. This is important both for growth and self-care, as well as when building a practice.
This is also a final, and core area. For those developing a private practice it needs to consider legal, ethical and marketing aspects in business development. This is a core focus on those as often; we want to begin working with clients as soon as possible! Therefore, these additional focuses are often present here.
If you are seeking supervision or had more queries, please reach out or email on info@riverinacounselling.com.au