Supervision is a common practice in counseling and psychotherapy and is a great tool for the lifetime of a counselor or therapist. There are a variety of reasons why counselors need supervision. As a whole, it is generally a great idea for any counselor to have supervision, but there are three different types of supervision that you should know about. Below are two types of counseling supervision and how it affects your relationship with your counselor or therapist. Your counselor or therapist’s supervisor generally is not in your sessions and you generally will not meet them unless you need or want to.
Supervision for Credentialing: The process of becoming a fully credentialed counselor is a long road. There are between 6-9 years of schooling involved (depending on the school, program, cadence of classes, specialization focus). After school is completed, the graduate then applies to their State for the next steps. In the State of California, the graduate applies to the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (or California Board of Psychology) for an Associate Registration or credential to start a supervised practice that will go towards the applicant's licensure in that state. After this, the counselor/therapist can start practice and will meet with a fully credentialed supervisor and will meet regularly to meet specific ratios to make sure that you get the best care possible as the counselor is entering the field of counseling. This form of supervision emphasizes ethical guidelines, state, and federal laws for the practice of counseling as well as the person of the counselor or therapist. This step takes a minimum of three years full time and at maximum is five years after graduation.
What licensing supervision means for you: Your counselor under licensing supervision will keep your confidentiality as expected and mandated by confidentiality laws and these law's exceptions, but the supervisor will also know your details of sessions, conversations, and concerns. Keep in mind that the counselor’s supervisor is bound by the same confidentiality laws that your counselor is. This is a normal and safe practice to help make sure your counselor or therapist helps you with your problems.
Supervision for theoretical application: There are many counseling theories for how problems exist, how they go away, and how to get to the good life. Supervision for theoretical application is when the counselor or therapist is new to the counseling theory and interventions and is seeking someone else who is formally trained in the theoretical application to help them apply the theory in your counseling sessions. The counselor could be fully credentialed or not, but this form of supervision focuses on the role of the theory in your life/relationship problem. Think of it this way: would you prefer to have a handyman with a lot of tools, but limited training on how the tools work and their best uses, or the handyman with the training of another handyman but can use a limited set of tools to fix anything well. This is a similar process for counselor supervision. Without specialized training in theories, counselors or therapists are certainly helpful but have limited specialized knowledge to help you when their knowledge ends.
What supervision for theory means for you: Your counselor or therapist will maintain your confidentiality as expected by state and ethical standards for counseling practice. Your counselor or therapist will speak/consult with their supervisor to support their interventions and care for you. In many contexts, this can look like sharing your consented and released videotapes from the session, and/or the counselor discussing the session's progress or process with their supervisor. This form of supervision is a good idea as it supports your counseling session with a second set of eyes on your needs, concerns, and progress in counseling.
As a whole, Supervision is a great idea and as a consumer of counseling myself, I am interested in where my counselor has practiced, learned from, and how they have been supervised to give me the best care.
At the time of this post, I have specialized training in helping couples build friendship, manage conflict and build meaning into their relationship and am working on theoretical supervision for helping people unlock and use their most intense emotions and traumas. Here is the up-to-date information about my supervisors and supervision experiences.
Too Long/Didn’t Read: As a consumer of counseling or therapy, supervision is in your best interest because it helps your helper help you the best that they can.
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