Supporting the supervisor: organizing professional development to enhance practice

Abstract

Although clinical supervision is deemed central to the delivery and dissemination of high quality CBT, knowledge of what constitutes ‘optimal’ CBT supervision remains limited. In consequence, understanding of how best to support the development of supervisors is also restricted. This article considers the professional development needs of CBT supervisors, identifying the current context in which CBT supervision is mandated and delivered and seeking to clarify the domains of knowledge, competence and skill that must be mastered. We propose ways in which CBT supervisors might construct their professional development activities and raise questions relating to the need for a more organizationally embedded approach to the development of CBT supervisors in the current professional climate.

Supporting our supervisors: a Summary and Discussion of the Special Issue on CBT supervision

“…Trainers and supervisors can benefit from having scheduled opportunities for peer consultation. As Corrie & Lane (2016) note, an excellent example of this model is the New Zealand Coaching and Mentoring Centre (2012). Consultation may also involve supervision-of-supervision, also known as ‘meta-supervision’, in which an experienced clinical supervisor observes, evaluates, and gives feedback plus guidance to a colleague on his or her supervisory work with a trainee (Newman, 2013).…”

“…Alongside Schoenwald, several articles in this Special Issue have noted the importance and benefits of giving feedback to supervisors (e.g. Corrie & Lane, 2016), and this is where measures of supervisors’ competence can play an important role in quality control. If delivered in an appropriately challenging and constructive fashion, even critical feedback can lead to professional growth (Rieck et al 2015).…”

“…Paper 5: Organizing professional development to enhance practice. Like Buus et al (2016), Corrie & Lane (2016) recognize that supervisor development should not be viewed solely as a personal learning process that is left to individuals, but in order to succeed needs to contextualize supervision within the organizational environment. At the same time, Corrie & Lane's four-step PURE model ( P reparing, U ndertaking, R efining and E nhancing supervision) provides well-structured guidance to anyone who wishes to conduct individual or group CBT supervision, or to train supervisors.…”

Conceptualising and managing supervisory drift

“…Newly appointed supervisors may feel anxious about being seen as knowledgeable enough to perform in the role (Corrie and Lane, 2016). They might also feel embarrassment or shame in relation to their own clinical work if they perceive that the supervisee is likely to criticise their level of skill during a modelling or role play task.…”