Clinical Supervision
“Practical wisdom is at the heart of effective supervision. Practical wisdom is achieved through the...celebration of the intuitive, responsive, playful approach to supervision that simply listens and responds, that is different in each encounter, and that follows no prescribed dictates..."
From Clinical Supervision of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Profession
Supervision in Theory
I feel being a supervisor is both a great privilege and a great responsibility. As with psychotherapy practice, I hold the supervisory alliance, the healthy relationship between you and me, to be the most important part of our work and the most powerful indicator of a successful supervision experience for both of us.
However, I am also a “gatekeeper” in my role of supervisor, carrying the responsibility for your clients’ well-being, and ensuring that you are adequately meeting and understanding the standards and regulations of our profession.
My approach to supervision is guided primarily by the model of a mentorship and focuses on three main areas of assessment:
1) FOUNDATIONALS refer to your way of “being” a psychotherapist: attitudes, values, traits, knowledge base, skill set.
2) FUNCTIONALS refer to your way of “doing” psychotherapy: are you meeting the professional competencies required for regulation by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO)?
3) STAGES refer to where you are in your ongoing “process” of development as a psychotherapist and where your learning edges are.
Supervision in Practice
I am an integrative psychotherapist and, consequently, an integrative supervisor, drawing from many different schools of thought in my approach. My supervision includes the exploration of therapies falling within all five of the categories articulated by the CRPO: cognitive and behavioural therapies, experiential and humanistic therapies, psychodynamic therapies, somatic therapies, and systemic and collaborative therapies.
I would add spiritual work to that list.
I offer individual (just you and me), dyadic (you, me, and one other person), and group (up to 8 people) supervision.
Our work consists of a combination of self-reporting, case conceptualization, and modelling/demonstration. With self-reporting, you bring your case files and share your experiences. With case conceptualization, your understanding of your clients is unpacked, relevant theories, techniques and frameworks are explored, assessments and treatment plans are formulated, and any applicable regulatory or legal aspects to your cases are discussed. With modelling/demonstration, we find opportunities for you to see theory put into practice by myself or other seasoned therapists. You are also able to view yourself, via your own audio or video recordings of your sessions, and receive feedback.
Finally, supervision includes an evaluative component, which I believe should be reciprocal: I evaluate you and you evaluate me.
For more information or inquiries please Contact me directly.
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Viktor Frankl