Supervision Formats Strengths and Challenges Discussion Responses – Description
Please respond to both of these discussion posts
Discussion 1: Supervision formats, strengths and challenges
Three of the supervision formats that I can see myself preferring in the supervisor role are live individual, live group supervision and reviewing individual case notes.
Individual one-on-one live supervision includes the supervisor meeting only with one trainee at a time to provide supervisory support in person. Some advantages of this format include reducing the number of others in the room that can make discussion about professional concerns or case topics stressful and confusing. Also having the supervision in person means that there is less concern for ensuring confidentiality through electronic recordings or meetings. It can be a viewed as a safe place or haven for the trainee to bring up more personal experiences and reactions to the case without anxiety of judgement (Lee & Nelson, 2013). Some drawbacks to this type of supervision are that there is not the feedback from colleagues and other trainees that can be beneficial. Also, if the power dynamics with the supervisor have led to some distress in the professional relationship, then there are not others present to buffer the situation.
I also can see many positive aspects to having group live supervision sessions. I believe there are many benefits to having the experience and practicing presenting a case to peers and a supervisor and receiving feedback from others that are also working in the same environment. The drawback to this is the added barrier of ensuring confidentiality among more people. It can also lead to receiving conflicting advice or too much where it is overwhelming or anxiety producing for the supervisee seeking support.
Lastly, reviewing individual case notes with supervisees are crucial to them learning the skill of clinical documentation, case construction, presentation of symptoms and treatment planning. These skills not only are necessary in regard to legal documentation and billing purposes, but also to assist in summarizing sessions and visually organizing the progression of treatment with a client or clients. Some drawbacks to this are that a supervisee may feel anxious about their writing skills being critiqued or needing to stay on top of documentation when they may have many cases to juggle. All of these are still important skills to learn, but they can be stressful to manage as a new trainee.
References
Lee, R. E., & Nelson, T. S. (2013). The contemporary relational supervisor. Routledge.
Discussion 2: I prefer doing dyadic supervision where it is the supervisor and two supervisees sharing a supervision session. I think this allows for a few different dynamics to occur. First, it is easier to manage the level of safety in the room than it would be in a group supervision. Second, it allows for peer collaboration which can help decrease the power dynamic that can occur in an individual session. Third, it allows both supervisees to hear about cases and see them worked through that can help develop their clinical conceptualization. Finally, it can normalize clinical development. The supervisees can have a more clear understanding of where a peer with similar training is at in clinical development which can help normalize some of their feelings and experiences. A challenge of this method can be potential triangulation occurring. Having three people in the room can be difficult to balance how and when to express emotions in a clear and safe manner and can lead to the issues we discussed last week with the third member being pulled into the conflict.
I enjoy being able to provide live supervision where I watch a session through a two way mirror and then engage with my supervisee about the session immediately after. A challenge of this method is that it requires a significant amount of pre-planning to arrange time and it also requires clinic rooms to be set up for it. A huge advantage to this style of supervision is that the supervisee receives instant feedback on a session and they are able to talk through the case in close to real time.
I can also see the value in trainee report. I think that this style of supervision allows the supervisee to take ownership of their clinical skills and their clinical work. It allows space and time for them to share their contextualization of the client and to focus their thoughts. I think it is also a valuable skill to be able to summarize clinical work and present it to colleagues. This can be a barrier for those who struggle with this type of sharing out and it can also be time consuming in a supervision session where other issues are needing to be addressed.
References
Lee, R. E., & Nelson, T. S. (2014). The contemporary relational supervisor. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
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