Purpose and Goals of Counseling Supervision

Title:  Unit 3 Purpose and Goals of Counseling Supervision

Rebecca Slagle

COUN 5400– Intro to Research and Human Development

Dr. Deborah Moore

November 27, 2015

In the field of marriage and family counseling, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AMFT) defines counseling supervision as “the process of evaluating, training, and providing oversight to trainees using relational or systemic approaches for the purpose of helping them attain systemic clinical skills” (AAMFT, 2014). According to Milne and Oliver (2000), a supervisory relationship is one provided by a senior member of a profession to a junior member of the profession which extends over a period of time and has the purpose of enhancing the function of the junior member.  

One of the models for supervision in counseling is the discrimination model. The discrimination model was developed by Janine Bernard in 1979 (Bernard and Goodyear, 2009). Supervisors using this model observe, evaluate, and provide feedback to their supervisees according to their observations. Feedback is provided on the interaction with the client, such as pacing, use of silence, and intervention delivery.  Also, feedback is about conceptualization skills of understanding of what the client is communicating.  The supervisor will look at how these important elements were identified within the session, and how the supervisee responded to the client’s needs. Finally, the supervisor will work on personalization skills, which involves an understanding of yourself and your cultural background, personality, and how it affects your interactions with people, and any abilities or deficiencies that must be worked on due to this. When the supervisor provides useful feedback to the supervisee, it helps them to understand how to improve working with clients. According to Bernard and Goodyear (2009), in this model, the supervisor could respond in one of nine different ways (three roles x three observations).While reviewing this evaluation, the supervisor might take on different types of roles.  For example, some take on the role of a teacher and show tools and theories to help in the counseling setting. Other supervisors take on the role of a counselor, as they work with supervisees to reflect on meaning, or process thoughts and feelings about work. As supervisees progress, the supervisor may act as more of a consultant where they merely provide guidance and support, but treat them more as an independent professional that is capable of making decisions.  

Another model of supervision is the Person of the Therapist Training (POTT) model.  According to Aponte, Powell, et al. (2000), the POTT model requires mastery of the self in order to meet the challenges of the client that are present both in the technical venue and in the therapeutic relationship.  There are three basic goals of the POTT model.  First, is for the counselor to know themselves and their personal challenges.  We have all have different life experiences with give us a perspective on a situation.  We must have dealt with our own past, to help others cope with their own. Second, the counselor’s culture, values, and spirituality are vital in shaping an outlook towards life.  A counselor must be aware of his perspective and possible bias in any situation in order to deal with clients fairly and as objectively as possible. Finally, a counselor must be able to manage their own persona with all the outside forces working on them.  A counselor must have a process or a support group to help handle all of the stresses of life and counseling that might arise.  All of this will have an effect on the counseling professional at work.  For example, if a counselor comes from a background with an abusive father, he/she will need to have dealt with this issue from the past.  Also, the counselor will need to understand how this might produce a bias in their counseling and be aware of this with clients. There should also then be follow up for the counselor as he or she continues on in their practice to discuss stresses with a counselor of their own.  Then if there is stress from a client who has a father issue, this will be brought out in the counselor’s own session. This will improve the counseling ability of the supervisee as they move through the supervision process and continue on in their counseling later on. This model would have a supervisee delve into their own experiences and personal struggles to cultivate their counseling skills to better meet the needs of the client (Aponte, Powell, et al.)

Providing supervision in the field of counseling, is the ethical moral thing to do.  This ensures that quality counselors are being produced to help people. Supervision will act as a gatekeeper to the profession ensuring quality standards are maintained.  Additionally, counseling supervision is important from an ethical standpoint because they ensure the treatment that clients are receiving by the supervisees.  According to the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics, counseling supervisors monitor client welfare and supervisee performance and professional development. To safeguard that the well-being of the client, supervisors meet regularly with supervisees to review work and help them become prepared to serve a range of diverse clients (ACA Code of Ethics, 2014).