Overview
Clinical supervision is a process where a more experienced counselor provides formal interventions to a less experienced counselor (or, in some cases, a peer). We focus on professional behavior, skill development, case formulation, and personal awareness.
My ultimate responsibility in the supervisory relationship is to assist you in providing safe, ethical, and appropriate treatment to your clients. In our work together, I expect you to be open and honest about your clients, and about the impact your work with them has on you.
In addition, I believe you’ll get the most out of our work together if you are able to be equally open about your experiences with me in supervision. Please feel free to let me know what you do — and don’t — find helpful, as well as what feelings arise in the process. I understand that this is often not easy; but taking such risks can be clarifying and build confidence.
Together, we’ll create a supervision plan to meet your particular supervision needs. If your goals are beyond my expertise, or outside my area of competence, I will assist you in finding suitable supervision elsewhere.
Ethics & Professional Identity
Counseling ethics codes are the basis for our professional identity as counselors. I believe that professional identity is fundamental to good practice, and I strongly encourage you to read and reread the ethical codes. I ascribe to the codes of ethics of the Maine Board of Counseling Professionals, the American Counseling Association, and the American Mental Health Counselors Association. Please bring questions you may have about these codes to our supervision meetings. I also encourage you to join at least one professional counseling organization.
As your supervisor, I will endeavor to assist you in the development of sound clinical judgment. Examples of issues that might interfere with clinical judgment include: difficulty setting boundaries, inappropriate dual relationships, inability to conceptualize the difference between boundary crossing vs. boundary violations, and not understanding the impact of the power differential with clients. Under certain circumstances, I may encourage you to seek individual counseling in addition to supervision.
As a supervisor, I am legally bound to protect the confidentiality of your clients. The supervisor-supervisee relationship, however, is not protected in the same way as the counselor-client relationship. Should your professional behavior appear inappropriate, I will first discuss my concerns with you, along with a plan of action. Impaired or inappropriate supervisee behavior might be reportable to the licensure board.
My Counseling Orientation & Experience
My primary theoretical orientation is Humanistic/Experiential, centered on Emotion- Focused Therapy (EFT). EFT is an integration of Person-Centered Therapy, Focusing, Gestalt Therapy, and Existential Therapy, grounded in a contemporary, fully-articulated theory of emotion. (EFT-C, for couples, adds systemic theory to this integration). I have trained separately in each of these modalities, as well as in the EFT integration. I continue to study and train in Humanistic/Experiential models, and I continue to consult with other clinicians about ethical and clinical issues that arise in my work.
The most common presenting issues in my practice are anxiety, depression, anger, grief, existential issues and relationship issues. I work with individuals, couples and groups. I do not participate in any managed care panels.
My Supervision Orientation & Experience
My supervision orientation is derived from the discrimination model. This means that at different times I may function somewhat like a teacher, other times as counselor, and still other times as a consultant, depending on your needs and what arises in our supervision sessions. We’ll work together to establish goals and a structure for our overall supervision, as well as for each supervision session.
I am able to serve as your clinical supervisor in the state of Maine both because I am well over three years past full licensure, and because I have completed over 30 hours of training in clinical supervision. My supervision experience includes supervising both counseling graduate students and conditionally licensed counselors. In addition, I have offered Humanistic/Experiential consultation to licensed counselors, licensed social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists, and licensed psychologists. I have been actively engaged in clinical supervision since 2014.
General Supervision Procedures
For Individual or dyadic supervision, we’ll meet face to face for 60 minutes. For group supervision, we meet for 90 minutes. Depending on your in-meeting needs, we’ll utilize a combination of self-report; audio or videotape of your sessions (always with the proper permissions); didactic presentation of theory & interventions; role-playing; and live demonstration. I have become increasingly persuaded that the use of videotape in supervision allows for the most concrete transmission of counseling skills, and avoids the pitfalls that arise when (as necessarily happens) the supervisee doesn’t know what they don’t know.
It might be necessary to arrange a phone consultation in a time of crisis or emergent need. My cell phone number is (207) 699-4979. Please note that phone consultation cannot be used toward documenting hours of supervision for either licensure or renewal of license.