Foundations of Art Therapy Supervision

Creating Common Ground for Supervisees and Supervisors

Yasmine J. Awais, Daniel Blausey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781315451152
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Foundations of Art Therapy Supervision serves as a reference guide for art therapists who have found themselves in supervisor roles without prior training and supervisees hoping to learn what to expect from the supervision relationship, and illustrates how to receive and provide clinical art therapy supervision.

Written by two art therapists with over 35 years of collective supervision experience, this new resource includes a framework for providing effective supervision in the classroom and in the field, case studies and art-based supervisory exercises, and guidance for new professionals seeking certification or licensure. Chapters weave the authors' supervision experience with a significant literature review, and feature explanations on how professional identities (art therapist, psychotherapist, counselor, supervisor, supervisee, administrator, educator, etc.) and personal identities (gender, race, sexuality, etc.) influence the supervisory and therapeutic relationships.

This book will teach supervisees how to make the most of their experience while simultaneously providing a comprehensive reference for practicing supervisors.

Part 1

How to Get the Most out of Supervision

The act of art therapy supervision is complex. This section aims to orient the reader by providing a shared language and foundational understanding of what supervision entails for both supervisors and supervisees. Our purpose is to encourage the formation and maintenance of a meaningful and dynamic relationship to art therapy supervision that highlights an intentional awareness and attention to race, gender, and other differences. This section, How to Get the Most Out of Supervision, contains three chapters:

• What is Art Therapy Supervision? Reasons and Expectations;
• What Supervisors Need to Know about Supervision; and
• What Supervisees Need to Know about Supervision.

In Chapter 1, What is Art Therapy Supervision? Reasons and Expectations, we provide a working definition of the topic, review history on the beginnings of supervision, consider a supervision framework, outline three key areas of supervision, and clarify the roles and responsibilities of the supervisor and supervisee. We also consider the crucial role of artmaking – no other type of supervision grapples with the implicit role of art. In Chapter 2, What Supervisors Need to Know about Supervision, we explore best practices of the supervisor. This includes understanding ideal supervisor qualities and ensuring art is incorporated in supervision sessions – the art of the clients, the art of the supervisee, and the art of the supervisor. Finally, Chapter 3, What Supervisees Need to Know about Supervision, focuses on how to get the most out of supervision, including an exploration of ideal qualities of supervisees. For the supervisee who has less structural power in the relationship, we identify strategies on how to bring artmaking to supervision. Each chapter in How to Get the Most out of Supervision includes practice prompts for readers who are supervisors or supervisees. We hope these prompts invite a fuller exploration of how to get the most out of supervision.

1 What Is Art Therapy Supervision?

Reasons and Expectations

Introduction

Clinical practice can be categorized as occurring in two broad settings: public-institutional settings and private practice. The private practice setting tends to be more homogeneous, with clusters of clinically prepared master’s- or doctoral-level clinicians. The public domain of clinical practice tends to be more diverse – assorted clinicians with divergent credentials – and yet their responsibilities and roles overlap and converge. In both of these settings, administrators and supervisees sometimes narrowly view clinical supervisors as gatekeepers of the organization’s policies and procedures. In other words, managers in public-institutional settings often see an on-site supervisor’s primary supervisory responsibility as administrative, prioritizing the organization’s mission via policies and procedures over the educational or supportive supervisory aspects of developing clinicians and their work. With balance, we believe the cultural context of these settings can provide something magical for the client, therapist, and supervisor. In particular, the isomorphic nature of the supervisor-and-supervisee relationship can foster creativity and professional growth that in turn may facilitate quality client care.

The aim of this chapter is to give the reader a working definition of supervision. We explain what supervision is, including some history of the beginnings of clinical supervision. The roles and responsibilities of the supervisor and supervisee are also clarified. Ultimately, our aim for this chapter, in conjunction with the rest of this book, is to provide a framework and foundation for the practice of supervision.

Just as importantly, we want to create an enthusiasm for forming a deeper, dynamic relationship to supervision. Supportive, thoughtful supervisory relationships multiply the benefits of supervision. A genuinely effective supervisor creates a reassuring and supportive environment for the art therapist’s field experience. Reliable and accountable supervision supports not only the art therapist, but also directly influences the experiences of the people engaging in art therapy. Supervision can be an instrumental experience of mentorship, leadership, humility, mutual learning, and “figuring things out together” in the most challenging and enlightening of ways. Learning is mutual in supervision. A good supervisor openly expects to learn from the supervisee and continually discovers how to be a better supervisor. This openness increases skills in the supervisor. Supervisees have a greater likelihood of becoming equally strong supervisors when they are actively engaged in the supervisory process.

As seen in Daniel’s story (see Vignette 1.1), it is common for clinicians to become supervisors due to their time in the field, whether they have had training in the practice of supervision or not. This is not unique to art therapy and has been documented in other behavioral health professions (Hoge, Migdole, Farkas, Ponce, & Hunnicutt, 2011). We aim to disrupt this tradition by providing current and future supervisors a framework for best practices. Becoming a supervisor should be a conscious, thoughtful, and educated experience.

Vignette 1.1Daniel’s First Supervisee

My first art therapy supervisory role was as an on-site internship supervisor for a graduate student. At the time, I had been an art therapist for four years. As the only art therapist on staff, I was encouraged and supported by the agency I worked for, and the graduate program of the student, to bring in an art therapy intern. Despite this support, I deliberated whether I was ready and experienced enough for the commitment. However, there were many benefits of accepting of an art therapy intern: the agency increased the potential for the provision of art therapy services, and I discovered the role of being an art therapy supervisor and created a new art therapy internship placement.

The intern was an established artist: white, female, and, surprisingly, several years older than me. At first the age difference was somewhat intimidating to me. Nonetheless, it quickly became an asset as the intern’s natural inquisitiveness, comfortableness with her own vulnerability, and eagerness to learn fed a quickly built alliance. Transparency, especially my own ability to say, “I don’t know,” was pivotal. The alliance was based on mutual respect and understanding of what the other provided and the reciprocated “Let’s figure this out together” approach.

The success of this internship paved the way for a robust creative arts therapy internship program implemented over the next decade to include art, drama, music, and dance movement interns.

The Landscape of Supervision

The Oxford English Dictionary defines supervision as “The action or function of overseeing, directing, or taking charge of a person, organization, activity, etc.; supervisory responsibility” (“Supervision”, 2019). When we further break down the word, we find two parts – super and vision. Super refers to being “above, on top (of), beyond, besides, in addition” (“Super”, 2019) while vision is “Something which is apparently seen otherwise than by ordinary sight” (“Vision”, 2019). Having someone who is outside of yourself, someone with more experience and an outside perspective, can help one see things that may be overlooked. This is because it is not possible to see all aspects of a situation, particularly when you are learning. Learning by observing and doing is the hallmark of clinical training, and supervision – required for trainees and new professionals – is a key component of this process.

Supervision has evolved over time, moving away from a model where two clinicians discussed a case (and the psychology of the client) and towards a more triadic relationship between the supervisor, supervisee, and client (Watkins, 2011). This does not mean that all three persons are in the room together, but that the relationship between all three individuals is considered. See Figure 1.1 for a visual representation of this tripartite relationship. As you can see from this simplified illustration, the relationship extends beyond just these three players into the community. Furthermore, like social work, psychotherapy has acknowledged that the location of the therapy, meaning the administrative aspects of where psychotherapy takes place, influences the practice of supervision (Watkins, 2011).

Figure 1.1 The impact of supervision.

There are a variety of reasons a supervisor or supervisee engages in supervision:

• To process what actually occurs in sessions so the therapist can do better clinical work;
• To fulfil a requirement for education or employment;
• To “give back” to the profession;
• To obtain national credentials and state-level licensure;
• To obtain support during a job change, when developing a private practice, or for specific case consultation; and
• To become a better supervisor (i.e., supervision of supervision).

Regardless of the reasons why therapists participate in supervision, we believe effective supervision requires a fundamental understanding of the complexity and act of supervision that goes beyond a well-informed definition.

The Practice of Supervision

The act of supervision is complex, and has been defined and described in a variety of ways. The oversight of clinical work has been described as “the act of managing, directing, controlling, guiding, inspecting, or providing oversight” (Hoge et al., 2011, p. 187). This oversight is often broken down into two categories: administrative (or task assistance) and emotional support (Hoge et al., 2011). Watkins (2011) identifies five common aspects of psychotherapy supervision in his review of the literature:

1. It is educative.
2. It is distinct from therapy.
3. It is distinct from consultation.
4. While components overlap with teaching, psychotherapy, and consultation aspects, supervision is a separate endeavor.
5. “Supervision is a distinct intervention” (Watkins, 2011, p. 59).

Kadushin and Harkness (2014) identified not two but three components of supervision – administrative, educational, and supportive. While we understand there are overlaps in these concepts, we use these three key areas throughout the book as they break down the elements of supervision in a clear manner. Administration, education, and support are crucial to any supervising process, regardless of the theoretical orientations of supervision or who is being supervised. See Figure 1.2 for a visual depiction as originally published in Delano (2001), which looks at the three components of supervision overlapped onto the tripartite relationship of the supervisor, supervisee, and client.

Figure 1.2 Three aspects of supervision in relation to the supervisor and supervisee.

Reprinted by permission of Frank Delano (2002).

Key Area 1: Administrative

This aspect of supervision may be the most difficult one for art therapists to grasp, as we tend to focus on the relationship between art therapist and client, not the client and their environment (i.e., family systems, community, etc.), or the art therapist and their work environment. This is a growing understanding that, in addition to attending to the individual psychodynamics of the patient/client, part of the clinical work of therapists is to attend to the systems that affect and shape the client. This is evident to art therapists working in communities (see Allen, 2007; Hocoy, 2007; Timm-Bottos, 2011) and other settings. Furthermore, as art therapists are increasingly trained to also be counselors, many seek licensure and jobs that are geared towards counseling or even case management. Regardless of how much art therapy is being conducted, there are always administrative components to consider: documentation, scheduling, and compliance.

Documentation

Documenting the art therapy – the work done in session – often consumes more time than the art therapy itself. Documentation includes progress notes (both on paper and electronically), creating and updating treatment plans, and visual documentation of artwork created in session. Artwork documentation is unique to the practice of art therapy and challenging because of ethical concerns. Some of the most challenging concerns involve maintaining confidentiality and maintaining records for the appropriate amount of time as determined by the agency or state. It is not always realistic to hold original artwork created by clients for years due to storage issues, and art therapists may choose to photograph the artwork created. With digital photography, artwork can easily be documented and stored electronically or printed. In some facilities, photography is not allowed, or the art therapist may not have access...