Counselor Supervision

Nicholas Ladany, Loretta J. Bradley, Nicholas Ladany, Loretta J. Bradley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781135966508
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Clinical Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This new edition of Counseling Supervision is intended for counselor educators, counselor supervisor practitioners, and supervisors-in-training in a variety of educational and mental health settings. The editors have brought together experts in the field of counselor education to review and examine primary supervision theories and their application to the issues that counselor supervisors will encounter. Special topic areas included are multicultural issues in counselor supervision; the supervisory relationship, an essential and sometimes forgotten component of supervision, and its influence on supervision process and outcome; supervision of career counselor trainees; supervision of school counselors; supervision of family and group counselors; group supervision; understanding and conducting research in counselor supervision and training; ethical and advocacy issues in supervision, and supervisor training. The authors include numerous case examples throughout the text in order to illustrate the application of theory to practical issues that the counselor supervisors encounter. All chapters in this edition have been revised and updated, and new chapters have been added that expand on areas of supervision that are highly relevant to students, researchers, and practitioners.

PART I
Counselor Supervision

Essentials for Training

CHAPTER 1
Overview of Counseling Supervision

LORETTA J. BRADLEY, NICHOLAS LADANY, BRET HENDRICKS, PEGGY P. WHITING, and KATIE M. RHODE

Counselor supervision is arguably the primary way in which educators facilitate or inhibit counselor competence (Ladany & Inman, in press). Supervision comes in many shapes and sizes and reflects many of the chapters in this book (e.g., individual supervision, group supervision, supervision of family counseling, etc.). The most common form of supervision is individual supervision and it is here where we start with a definition. Ladany and Inman broadly define individual supervision as a

dyadic activity whereby the supervisor facilitates the provision of feedback to the supervisee, which is based on the interpersonal communication between both members of the dyad and can pertain to the work in supervision, the supervisee, the supervisee’s clients, or the supervisor. (Ladany & Inman, in press)

We can expand this definition to encompass all types of supervision in the following manner: Counselor supervision is a didactic and interpersonal activity whereby the supervisor facilitates the provision of feedback to one or more supervisees. This feedback can pertain to the work in supervision, the supervisee(s), the supervisees’ clients, or the supervisor, and can positively or negatively influence supervisee counselor competence and client outcome.

This definition obviates the problems with other definitions of supervision that typically only address individual supervision of individual counseling, leaving other valuable forms of supervision such as peer and group supervision unaddressed. Moreover, it addresses the interrelated types of supervision traditionally referred to as administrative supervision (e.g., supervisor helps the supervisee function effectively as a part of the organization with the overall intent to help the organization run smoothly and efficiently) and clinical supervision (e.g., supervisor assists with supervisee-related and client-related issues).

With this definition in hand, we spend the remaining part of this chapter attending to aspects of being a supervisor that sets the stage for the book. These aspects include: a brief history of counselor supervision, supervisor qualifications, supervisor skills and attributes, and purposes of counselor supervision.

A Brief History of Counselor Supervision

Supervision can be traced back to the field of social work in the late 1800s (Munson, 2002). Charity Organization Societies, as it was called, retained staff members who supervised apprentice workers. The format typically consisted of supervisors, each of whom supervised multiple supervisees occasionally through individual, and later group, conferences. Freud, in 1902, set the stage for supervision, whereby the analyst was analyzed (Goodyear & Guzzardo, 2000) and in 1925, supervision first became a required aspect of training (Kugler, 1995). In the middle of the twentieth century, theories of supervision were largely modeled after theories of psychotherapy (e.g., Ekstein & Wallerstein, 1958) and it wasn’t until the 1980s when supervision-based models emerged and supervision was seen as a distinct subfield within counseling (Bernard, 2005). It was also during the 1980s when research on supervision process and outcome began to burgeon (Ladany & Inman, in press). Since that time, empirical studies have been published at a moderate rate of about 12 per year, and the fields most linked with the theoretical and empirical work in supervision have been counselor education, counseling psychology, and social work.

Supervisor Qualifications

The necessary academic preparation and background experiences of counselor supervisors have been investigated by Borders (2005); Eriksen, Ellison, and Throckmorton (2008); McAdams and Foster (2007); Richardson and Bradley (1986); Thompson (2004); and previously by Riccio (1961, 1966), and the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) survey (1969). Additionally, ACES has developed standards for supervisors (1993). Results from these studies indicate that the majority of supervisors in field settings (i.e., agencies, state departments, and schools) have gained a significant level of education beyond the master’s degree. Despite these high levels of educational attainment, the alarming fact remains that only a token number of supervisors, regardless of work setting, have received specific preparation for supervision.

A reasonable assumption is that many counselor supervisors achieved their supervisory positions on the basis of educational level, tenure, and successful counseling experiences. It would also be realistic to expect that such professionals are well connected politically within their organizations to attain positions of authority and power. However, counseling experience and an accumulation of academic credits must be viewed as insufficient qualifications, by themselves, for supervisors of counselors. This is especially the case with supervisors who attained their positions because they were well connected with dominant power structure within the organization. Preparation in supervision methodology must become an entrance criterion if supervision practice is to be validated (Barnes, 2004; Hazler & Kottler, 2005; Holloway & Neufeldt, 1995; McWhirter & McWhirter, 2007; Neufeldt, 1999, 2007).

Skills and Attributes

The literature on supervisory job functions generates some information about the necessary personality attributes of a supervisor. The supervisor must be a serious, committed professional who has chosen counseling and supervision as a long-term career (Bernard & Goodyear, 2009). This assumption implies that the supervisor is energetic and ambitious, but not in an egotistical or opportunistic manner. Instead, the supervisor is committed to and ambitious about developing and maintaining accountable helping services.

The supervisor must possess the skills of empathy, respect, genuineness, supportive-confrontation, and immediacy (Blocher, 1983; Juhnke, Kelly, & Cooper, 2008). In addition, other descriptions of the good supervisor included concern for the growth and well-being of the supervisee (Bernard, 1992; Estrada, 2005; Mueller & Kell, 1972; Norcross & Beutler, 2008), as well as the welfare of the client (Bernard, 2005; McWhirter & McWhirter, 2007). Other positive supervisor characteristics included integrity, courage, sense of humor, capacity for intimacy, sense of time, openness to self-inspection (Ellis & Robbins, 1993), responsibleness (Borders & Brown, 2005; Holloway & Neufeldt, 1995) and a nonthreatening, nonauthoritarian approach to supervision (Geldard & Geldard, 2008; Pearson, 2006). Supervisors should also possess the capacity to be flexible, tolerant, and open to various styles and levels of learning (Borders, 2005).

In short, supervisors should themselves be able to demonstrate the conditions and characteristics they expect of their supervisees. This means that they become living examples of all those qualities, skills, and behaviors that they consider important for others (Bradley, Lewis, Hendricks,& Crews, 2008).

The essential criteria for selection of supervisors include an expectation of competence and success in a broad range of helping activities. In addition to such professionally demonstrable qualities, a supervisor should possess confidence and professional assurance. A hesitant, unsure supervisor cannot offer the kind of leadership that is needed in supervisory positions. This is particularly true in agencies and schools where counselors are subordinate to other administrators. The supervisor needs to be confident and strong when working with those who have administrative power over counselors, as well as when grappling with the difficult decisions that arise in supervision.

A supervisor should command both the professional and the personal respect of colleagues and associates in the work environment. Professional respect is, in part, founded on competence and ability, first as a good counselor and then as a capable supervisor. Personal respect relates to whether the supervisor is accepted as a person by her or his associates based upon integrity and ethical indices that are reflected through professional behavior.

Finally, the supervisor must be highly committed to protecting the welfare of others, including the ability and willingness to serve as an advocate for counselors and their clients. All individuals need support, and counselors as a group suffer from a lack of professional affirmation. A supervisee needs to feel that the supervisor believes in her or his potential to become a more effective practitioner.

To summarize, the supervisor is a well-prepared individual who has entered the supervisory position after attaining a high degree of training, experience, and wisdom as a practitioner with specialized knowledge of supervision in counseling. The supervisor is respected as a person of exemplary character and is regarded as a mentor from whom other counselors can learn. The supervisor is an advocate for counselors and is dedicated to her or his personal and professional development.

Purposes of Counselor Supervision

What are the purposes of supervision? There are obvious functions, to be sure, but also subtle ones as well. Statements of purpose are often overlapping, but they are extremely important because they register intent and set direction.

Counselor supervision has three main purposes:

1. Facilitation of counselor professional and personal development

2. Promotion of counselor competencies

3. Promotion of accountable counseling services and programs

Singularly and collectively, these purposes provide a rationale for the work of supervisors (Borders, 2005; Bradley, 1989; Bradley & Ladany, 2001).

Facilitation of Counselor Personal and Professional Development

The first purpose of supervision is a dual one: to facilitate the personal and professional development of counselors. The supervisor acts in the role of mentor and advocate, as well as teacher and consultant. Concurrently, supervisors must pursue professional and personal continuing education on a regular and on-going basis (Ethical Guidelines for Counseling Supervisors; ACES, 2003) to insure that they have the necessary resources and skills to provide supervisees with relevant training. In order for supervisors to monitor the counseling performance of supervisees, supervisors must themselves be aware of current trends and techniques of counseling.

Assuming agreement that facilitation of counselors’ personal development should be a purpose of sup...

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Editors
• Contributors
• PART I Counselor Supervision
• PART II Theoretical Approaches to Counselor Supervision
• PART III Specialized Models of Counselor Supervision
• PART IV Professional Issues in Counselor Supervision
• Index