Counselling Supervision
Clinical Director, Counsellor & Founder Craig Wanless MTC, RCS offers Counselling Supervision. Through his Registered Counselling Supervisor (RCS) designation with the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists of Canada (ACCT), he offers process-oriented and competency-based supervision for groups and individuals.
Process-oriented supervision uses a counsellor’s awareness, their description of how they conceptualize their client’s issues, and their own personal experiences to develop personal insights and enhance professional skills.
The complexity of this work is also interwoven within the context of us as care providers. Clinical supervision supports the development of the worker to gain insight into counter-transferences and “use of self." It also supports the professional development and education of the therapist, integrating the theory to clinical practice while supporting identifying the ‘blind spots’ within ourselves.
The role of clinical supervision is to provide clinical ‘oversight’ to ensure all aspects of the client’s welfare are monitored from a trauma-informed perspective of ‘do no harm’ and that we are always working and practicing within the client's best interests.
Ethical Practices and Understanding the Value of Self-Development
As an ethical practitioner, knowing your clinical abilities based on your speciality training and supervision regarding specialities of practice informs your competencies. As mentioned above, the complexity of the population we serve and the many dimensions of problems lead therapists to reflect on the scope and limitations of their competencies. No one practitioner has all the skills, abilities or knowledge to manage the complexities of our population. Ethical practitioners recognize this and incorporate clinical supervision into their practice to ensure that services are being delivered in a responsible, informed, safe, ethical and competency based way. This ensures that we support a ‘do no harm’ approach to client care.
The relationship between the practitioner and the clinical supervisor mirrors the relationship and connection between the practitioner and the client. Practitioners who do not access clinical supervision practice in a clinical silo, increasing risk of harm to clients.
THE FOUR AREAS OF CLINICAL FOCUS IN DEVELOPING SUPERVISEE COMPETENCE
1. The ability to be in relationship with clients knowing that the role of counselling is relational and that the evidence to client outcome is directly linked to the quality of the therapeutic relationship.
Supervision works to support the supervisee in developing their relational skills with clients. The most effective intervention we have is relational, and how we continue to build our skills in the relationship is a predictor of the quality of care our client experience. Your clients, who access your services, have a diverse and possibly complex history which all contribute to interpersonal challenges within. Therefore, our relational skills need to be at an advanced level where we can effectively manage transference and courter-transference reactions.
2. Developing the ability to use reflective practice is critical to clinical growth. As clinicians, you require a highly-developed capacity and ability to bear, observe, and think about the work we do within the counselling relationship. Clinical supervision promotes and encourages reflective practices.
3. Assessing clients from a trauma-informed lens and understanding causation, which led to the dysfunction, is the means to effective treatment. Advancing assessment skills from a holistic and biopsychosocial perspective rather than assessing and treating the dysfunction in isolation is a key competency to quality care and treatment.
4. Enhancing theoretical knowledge that is consistent with the population we serve and advance concepts to the relationship support in developing quality intervention and treatment.