Supervision: Theories and Models

Extensive education and training over a number of years is considered part of the "rights of passage" to becoming a mental health professional. However, the preparation of the formal study for a mental health practitioner is generally two fold:

• Formal theories and observations that have previously been confirmed and replicated by research.
• Training in the accompanying skills that have been developed by experienced practitioners over time.

Clinical supervision provides the safe environment in which counsellors can learn to blend these two strands of knowledge and begin to incorporate them into their own working counselling style.

As Bernard and Goodyear (1998) explain it, "Supervision is teaching that which occurs in the context of practice and provides a bridge between the campus and the clinic".

As mental health practitioners, we're well aware of the importance of supervision. In this article, we'll briefly explore common supervision models and theories.

Introduction

Kurt Lewin is renowned for claiming that "there is nothing as practical as a good theory". Theories allow us to make vast and complicated amounts of information into understandable concise pieces and to highlight the main issues or focal points of that vast amount of information.

All mental health practitioners and their supervisors function according to at least one theory but very often many theories. The supervisor's challenge is to extend their appreciation of those theories to guide their supervisory work with counsellors.

As supervision is an evaluative process, the theory or theories by which the supervisor chooses to use as a guide need credible and recognisable criteria. Patterson (1986) proposed what he considered to be the six most vital proponents of a theory:

• Preciseness and clarity; containing clear, consistent, unambiguous wording.
• Parsimony or simplicity, containing the minimum of assumptions necessary to explain the focus of the point.
• Comprehensiveness, regarding the use of the known data in that particular area of interest.
• Operationality, in that the hypotheses and concepts are expressed in clear, evaluative terms.
• Practicality, or useful to practitioners.
• Falsifiability, it is important that the theory can be disproved.

The following is a brief examination of psychotherapy-based theories, developmental models, social role models and eclectic or integrationist models of supervision.

Psychoanalytic Supervision

Psychoanalytic supervision is by far the oldest mainly because from its inception, psychoanalysis has addressed the concept of supervision. The supervisor assists the counsellor to be open to the experience that can be considered to mirror therapy whereby the counsellor learns the analytic attitude that includes such attributes as patience, trust in the process, interest in the client, and respect for the power and tenacity of client resistance.

An assumption of the psychoanalytic supervision model is that the most effective way a counsellor can learn these qualities in the supervisory climate is for them to experience these qualities from their supervisor in the supervisory relationship.

Client Centred Supervision

Carl Rogers was concerned with the concept of supervision for trainee counsellors, as he observed from early recordings of therapy sessions that the usual forms of learning were not effective in teaching student counsellors the non-directive approach of person centred therapy. Supervisors soon became starkly aware of this.

Roger, in his client centred therapy introduced the concept of listening and communicating the understanding of that experience with a client in such a unique way that many individuals were not familiar with prior to entering their formal education in counselling.

However, client centred therapeutic skills are more than listening and responding appropriately, they consist of the fundamental belief in the phenomenological process, that the issue of giving advice or instruction becomes superfluous. Therefore, client centred therapy and supervision is about stepping into the experience of the individual who chooses to be influenced, hence it becomes both a mirror and a paradox.

The successful client centred supervisor must therefore have a profound trust in the counsellor, believing the supervisee to have both the ability and motivation to grow and explore both the therapy and the self. This must therefore mirror the trust that the counsellor has in their clients to do likewise.

The challenge with client centred supervision occurs when the process is experienced in the supervisory context, and evidence or behaviour by the supervisee suggests that the supervisee actually has an inability to genuinely believe that their client has the ability to differentiate and move toward self actualisation. A counsellor who finds this incongruous and therefore mirrors this in supervision with their supervisor will have difficulty providing the necessary environment for their clients to change with this process.

Cognitive Behavioural Supervision

Cognitive-behavioural supervision proceeds on the assumption that both adaptive and maladaptive behaviours are learned and maintained through their consequences. As a result, CBT supervisors are more specific and systematic in their approach to supervision goals and processes than some of the other supervisory perspectives.

The supervisory model of the cognitive behavioural therapist consists of building rapport, skill analysis and assessment, setting goals (for the supervisee), implementing strategies, follow-up and evaluation.

CBT supervisors accept part of the responsibility for supervisee learning, but define the potential of the counsellor, as the potential to learn, and therefore supervision is concerned with the extent to which the supervisee is able to demonstrate technical competency.

Developmental Approaches to Supervision

Developmental approaches fundamentally focus on how the counsellor will change as they gain further training and supervised experience. Such supervision is based on two assumptions,

• in the process of becoming competent, the counsellor will progress though a number of stages that are qualitatively different from each other
• that each stage requires a qualitatively different environment for optimum growth to occur.

Over the years, literally dozens of supervisory theories have been put forth by numerous developmental psychologists attempting to improve on previous theories. The Stoltenberg Model identified four stages or levels:

During the first level the counsellor is dependent on the supervisor, by their lacking in self confidence, while imitating and endorsing categorical thinking with little real experience.

Level two, is indicated by an increased awareness in the counsellor and a striving for independence becoming more assertive with less imitation but with fluctuating motivation.

Level three is indicative of the counsellors/supervisee's autonomy, becoming more insightful and motivated as the supervisor's role now changes to being that of colleague.

The fourth and final stage finds the supervisee confident with their interpersonal and cognitive skills culminating in a confident professional and is now on equal terms with their supervisor.

Reference List

Bernard, J. M. and Goodyear, R.K. (1998). Fundamentals of clinical supervision. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.

Geldard, D. and Geldard K. (2005) Basic Personal Counselling; a training manual for counsellors.  NSW, Australia: Pearsons Education.

Patterson, C.H. (1986). Theories of counselling and psychotherapy (4th ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

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