How Many Supervisors Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

As I write this, I know I am going to warrant some of those “eye roller” remarks and comments below. I am ok with that because I need to say what I am about to share with you all.

Having worked under a supervisor for all of my work for 8-10 years and going is where I am at today. I see people post questions online (Facebook groups, listservs, etc.), while other clinicians and their grandmothers respond with their “researched” advice. There is so much more that is missing and so much you are not getting.

In this article, I implore you to “think differently” about the supervision of your sacred work. If by the end you are questioning the entire role of management where you work, then I have done my job correctly.

But first, let’s get some basic information settled.

What is a Supervisor?

?A supervisor is a person who is in charge of reviewing another person’s work. They are designated to be discriminatingly professional in their feedback, edits, and changes in that particular clinician’s work. Supervision is a distinct professional activity in which education and training aimed at developing science-informed practice are facilitated through a collaborative interpersonal process. It involves observation, evaluation, feedback, facilitation, and acquisition of knowledge and skills by instruction, modeling, and mutual problem-solving.

With this power, supervisors can come at it from two angles. They can choose to be a dictator that tears clinicians down, or they can choose “real” supervision when they provide opportunity for that clinician to capture the essence of psychotherapy and recreate a better piece of work.

For real supervision to take place, the supervisee must be called up to reconstruct each session in a way that is appropriate for a particular patient at a specific point in the therapy process. Within real supervision, the supervisor builds on the recognized strengths and talents of the supervisee, encouraging self-efficacy. This form of supervision ensures that clinical is conducted in a component manner where ethical standards, legal prescriptions, and professional practices are used to promote and protect the welfare of the client, the profession, and society at large.

Social Media is Not a Supervision Alternative

So many industries are seeing their professionals take to social media groups, listserves, and other forums today to ask, “what do I do?” They then sit back and take advice from people to weigh in on the matter. There is no transference or counter-transference experienced, no relationship, and no deeper connection or understanding. This does a great disservice to our industry and our expertise today.

Counter-inference is necessary today. It includes both positive and negative forms of personal influence, informing the therapeutic process. It can elicit both positive and/or negative responses in the therapist and take forms of distinctly unusual, idiosyncratic, or uncharacteristic acts or patterns of therapist experience towards clients, including enactments, parallel processes involving supervisory relationship.

Spoiler alert: none of this can be found through social media. If you feel you are not receiving this kind of supervision today, and are therefore taking to social media for answers, you need a new supervisor. Don’t feel afraid or out of line to proclaim this and request a new arrangement.

The success of your practice, your client, and overall society is at stake.