A competency-based approach to couple and family therapy supervision.

Abstract

The competency-based movement continues to guide professional psychology. This has been highlighted through the establishment of essential foundational and functional competencies. The current paper focuses on the intervention competency domain and delineates its relevance within the field of couple and family therapy (CFT). We begin by providing an overview of 8 essential components of CFT: developing a systemic formulation, forging a systemic therapeutic alliance, understanding family-of-origin issues, reframing, managing negative interactions, building cohesion/intimacy/communication, restructuring/parenting, and understanding and applying evidence-based CFT models. We then provide a brief illustration of foundational and functional competencies essential to CFT. We conclude by addressing the CFT competency within an integrative approach to supervision and provide a case illustration that depicts this process. The relevance of establishing unique, evidence-based, theory-specific competency components is highlighted.

Core Competencies in Social Constructionist Supervision?

“…Not surprisingly, educators and trainers have been seeking effective and innovative ways to prepare health providers who are competent and well equipped for the substantial changes in health care in the 21st century (Evers, Rush, & Berdeow, 1998). Competency‐based education (CBE) and the training of professionals, including family therapists, have been proposed as a viable alternative to more traditional academic approaches (e.g., Celano, Smith, & Kaslow, 2010; Falender & Shafranske, 2007; Gehart, 2009). Distinguishing CBE from these approaches is the assumption that knowledge is acquired in the context of practice rather than preceding it, as in traditional discipline‐focused professional education.…”

The Importance of Competency-based Clinical Supervision and Training in the Twenty-first Century: Why Bother?

“…A testament to their far-reaching impact, in addition to Benchmarks, competency-based approaches are available for entry-level supervisors ), practicum students (Hatcher and Lassiter 2007), multiple supervisory theoretical orientations including psychodynamic (Sarnat 2010), cognitive behavioral (Newman 2010), humanistic-existential (Farber 2010), couple and family therapy (Celano et al 2010), integrative (Boswell et al 2010); multiple specialty areas and settings including academic health centers (Kaslow et al 2008), clinical health psychology (France et al 2008), neuropsychology (Stucky et al 2010), rehabilitation psychology (Hibbard and Cox 2010), and gerontology (Karel et al 2010). This brief inspection of recent developments in the field points to competence as the unifying thread in the discourse about graduate education, training and career-long professional development.…”

Valuing and practicing competency-based supervision: A transformational leadership perspective.

“…They are metatheoretical and can be applied to any theoretical approach (Färber & Kaslow, 2010), specialty (Celano et al, 2010;France et al, 2008;Kerns et al, 2009;Knight, Karel, Hinrichsen, Quails, & Duffy, 2009;Stucky, Bush, & Donders, 2010) or context (Hatcher & Lassiter, 2007;Kaslow, Dunn, & Smith, 2008).…”