Counselling Supervision
1 Supervised Practice This means formal and contracted supervision of counselling practice as defined below. EAC recognises that in some countries practitioners will find it difficult at the moment to have supervision from an accredited or professional counsellor. In such cases it is required that supervision from a qualified professional in an allied field with an understanding of counselling as defined by EAC is obtained. 2
Definition of Counselling Supervision
2.1
2.2
2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2
Counselling supervision is a contracted, professional relationship betwee individuals engaged with counselling activities, which leads to reflection counselling situation and its structure; Supervision provides emotional support, containment and clear boundar counsellor and the counselling work
Supervision
encompasses an element of learning that includes elucid ethics and practice; Supervision responsibly monitors the working process between counsell The supervisory relationship and process of supervision are con developmental needs of the supervisee; Supervisors are responsible for monitoring their own ethical boundaries
Description of Counselling Supervision
Counselling supervision enhances the counsellor¶s effectiveness in responding to the needs of the client. Towards this purpose, counselling supervision assists those involved in the counselling profession in: 2.1
Becoming
increasingly aware of their own responses generated by their counselling work
2.2
Deepening
2.3
Continuously developing their counselling and professional skills
2.4
Managing
2.5
Evaluating Evaluating their professional practice
their professional knowledge
their caseload
The supervisor offers a climate in which the supervisee can feel understood, supported and challenged as well as instructed and assisted in their counselling work. It is the supervisor¶s responsibility to provide conditions that will help the supervisee to consider their experiences as subjects for reflection, elucidation and generating sources of knowledge. Counselling supervision takes place both during the training programme and after completion of the programme. An independent supervisor of his own choice then supervises the counsellor. However, the supervision offered by the training programme is evaluated along with the programme. 3
Models of Supervision
The following models of supervision will be adopted during the interim five-year period: i ii iii iv
One-to-one
(supervisor-counsellor Group supervision with counselling supervisor Combination of the above modes of supervision Peer supervision could be acceptable for accredited practitioners with 5 years post-accreditation experience. This would be subject to the requirements of the NA¶s or the guidelines of individual modalities
Group Supervision
is valuable but is not seen as the equivalent of one-to-one
supervision. It is preferable that the same person does not undertake supervisory and managerial responsibilities. If this cannot be avoided then the tasks and roles need to be clearly defined and contracted for. Peer
group support with clear aims and boundaries can enhance good counselling practice. However, this should not be used to replace supervision. 4
Ratio of counselling/supervision hours
The availability of supervisors and the understanding of the importance of supervision and supervision training are developing at different rates in different countries. Until an EAC requirement is decided please refer to your National Association for this requirement.
Why should psychological counsellors need to have supervision Supervision
is essential to ensure high standards of professional practice. Ongoing supervision helps practitioners to monitor and review the quality of their work as well as their client's progress. Supervision,
moreover, is a form of professional self-regulation. It is essential for the right to autonomous practice in the helping professions. Without supervision psychological counsellors might have to be regulated or "licensed" to practice by other professions (e.g. by the medical profession). Counselling supervision is especially important for trainees. Counselling skills can appear deceptively simple to learn with few technical details or technical language. Supervision has a special role in helping trainees move beyond basic forms of counselling skills to develop a more sophisticated and sensitive form of counselling expertise. Equally, counselling placements need careful management and structured support. The trainee experience should be encouraging and empowering rather than negatively demanding. Supervision provides a solid base to help trainees make sense of their learning experiences and to facilitate their professionalism. My Goals as Supervisor are: 1. T o
2. 3.
4.
help supervisees have a better (more integrated) sense of the therapeutic process. T o help supervisees develop principles of best professional practice . T o help supervisees develop professional confidence and an enhanced ability to act autonomously in their working context . T o help supervisees explore alternative means of understanding and intervening with particular client issues .
What is Counselling Supervision? Working under supervision means that a counsellor uses the services of anot her counsellor or psychotherapist to review their work with clients, their professional development, and often their personal development as well. Supervision is a professional service, rather t han a managerial role, and for counsellors who work in institutions, supervision and management will normally be entirely separate. The supervisor acts not as a 'boss', but as a consultant. Some counsellors also use group supervision, in which several t herapists confer on each other's work, although ordinarily this is used in addition to individual supervision, rather than as a replacement.
Why is Counselling Supervision Needed? Supervision exists for two reasons: 1. to protect clients, and 2. to improve the ability of counsellors to provide value to their clients. Supervision protects clients by involving an impartial third party in the wo rk of a counsellor and client, helping to reduce t he risk of serious oversight and helping the counsellor co ncerned to reflect on their own feelings, thoughts, behaviour and general approach with the client. These opportunities to reflect on how t hey relate to the client, as well as to garner insights from the perspective of another therapist, also help the counsellor to improve the value t hey are providing to their clients. In this respect, supervision is somewhat analogou s to peer review in the publishing process: few professional scientists would expect to be able to publish their results without peer review, and the quality of the scientific literature is undoubtedly better than it wo uld be without the positive influence of the peer review process.
What Does Supervision Mean for Confidentiality? The practice of supervision means that many details provided by clients are shared with peop le other than the counsellor concerned. However, overall client confidentiality is still safeguarded because: 1. individually identifying information (such as full name) is not revealed, and 2. information shared in supervision is itself protected under a co ntract of confidentiality and normally may not be shared outside the supervision relationship. In other words, while some client details are shared within the supervision relationship, these are not traceable back to the specific individual client, and they do not normally pass beyond the supervision relationship. (It is possible that a supervisor might bring a supervisee's client information to their own supervisor, if for some reason t hey are struggling with the supervisee.)
