Supervision

Supervision offers opportunities to reflect on and explore all facets of one’s clinical practice while inviting the ear, feedback, perspective and support of an experienced professional practitioner (the supervisor). The main goal of regular supervision is the promotion of professional, ethical, high-quality client services.

Supervision thus implies evaluative components, such as corrective feedback, additional teaching aimed at skill development, and clinical management (e.g. addressing issues around transference and countertransference within client-therapist and therapist-staff relationships). Supervision also implies supportive components, such as providing a sounding board, and offering solution-based feedback and developmental options regarding the student/practitioner’s personal and professional life (e.g. promoting the necessity for self-care and continuing development to be implemented by the supervisee in order to avoid burn-out).

Even though there are different levels and ways of doing supervision (see “types of supervision” and “levels of supervision” below), supervisors typically start by asking many questions, offering the supervisee space to explore his/her own lived experiences of therapy processes and clients, as well as assisting them to become aware of and explore underlying dynamics, blind spots, and different perspectives. The supervisor may become more directive if the supervisee is unable or unwilling to explore. Supervisors may also follow up and monitor the practical implementation of insights and skills gained through supervision. Supervisors may enquire about the supervisee’s theoretical understanding around a certain client scenario, offering suggestions in terms of further reading/studying.

Although supervision is NOT therapy, the supervisor-supervisee relationship offers additional opportunities to explore, understand and manage transference and countertransference issues, including projection, resistance, defense mechanisms, splitting etc. Thus, although supervision implies support, trust and guidance, criticism, challenge, and in some cases, confrontation may also be necessary; If supervision is always pleasant/flattering/positive, or always unpleasant/destructive/negative, something is amiss! Do remember – we all walk/have walked this road from scratch! Over time it becomes crucial to acknowledge and integrate one’s own strengths and weaknesses. Whether in the role of student, intern, therapist, or supervisor, we all need supervision.

Supervision can happen on-site, face to face, via Skype, Zoom or WhatsApp, or shared recorded video/audio clips or entire sessions can be watched together by supervisor and supervisee, pausing when necessary (computer screen share) if consent has been formally obtained.

Types of Supervision

Verbal exploration and feedback around clinical work (based on on-site supervision, sharing sessions notes, case studies, audio/video clips, the latter only with formal consent). This can happen one on one with the supervisor, or within a peer group (students/professionals) providing various forms/ways of feedback, with facilitation of an experienced supervisor.
Verbal feedback with hands-on workshopping of relevant clinical techniques and skills during supervision, individual or group
Experiential work, including one or more arts therapy modalities used to express and explore client(s)-therapist and/or supervisor-supervisee issues in supervision, workshopping clinical techniques and skills – one on one with supervisor, or with peers (students/professionals, with facilitation of an experienced supervisor). May include embodied work, dance-movement, roleplay, storytelling, and/or sculpting, drawing, painting, musical improvisation, guided imagery with/without music etc.
Combination of the above

Levels of Supervision

It is important to note that early phases of supervision (e.g. with inexperienced students/interns just starting their clinical work) are usually different from supervision with qualified, experienced therapists. In the early phases, supervision may be more directive, including very basic, corrective feedback in terms of issues around the student’s preparation, session planning, setting up the room, interacting with staff, choice of props/art materials/musical instruments and recorded music, implementation of clinical techniques/intervention, as well as helping and encouraging the supervisee to be able/willing to open up to personal exploration during supervision.

In later stages of supervision, a deepening is experienced, where the experienced practitioner (and supervisor) are ideally more comfortable and in touch with their own limitations and strengths, allowing the bigger picture, beyond the nitty-gritty, to emerge.

Supervision

ART THERAPY SUPERVISION

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