- Assess and evaluate your supervisee/supervisors carefully,
methodically and periodically. Formal reviews occur every 16 weeks but
ongoing evaluation is encouraged and expected.
- Develop a clear contract with your supervisor/supervisee regarding
expectations. This should be developed and agreed upon within the first
two weeks and periodically reviewed and revised. When will you meet?
Where will you meet? Whose responsibility is it to reschedule the
supervision time? Who should you contact when your direct supervisor is
not available? Is supervision outside scheduled time expected and/or
available? Other questions?
- Differentiate between being a supervisor and a consultant.
Consulting occurs on a regular basis and should be something that occurs
on a spontaneous basis. Supervision includes case management,
observation, co-therapy and/or formal face to face review of the
intern's progress.
- Trust your instincts: if something appears to be wrong, clarify
it. Are you comfortable with the treatment plan? Are you familiar with
all the medical abbreviations, etc?
- Remember that some trainees/supervisors will have significant
personal issues going on. These should be kept separate but that can't
always happen and then it is time to reassess the supervisor/supervisee
relationship. Supervisors do not do therapy with fellows and
vice-a-versa.
- Discuss any signs of distress you see in a supervisor/supervisee
(tired, distracted, disinterested, hostile, absent, etc). These are
normal human interactions but is it having an impact on
training/supervision?
- Deal with trainee counter transference: Supervisors should ask
about feelings toward clients and supervisees should consider how they
interact with certain patients versus other patients.
- Re-examine the treatment contract and clients' progress
periodically. If patient's are not making significant progress, what is
happening in therapy? Does there need to be a change in strategies or
therapists?
- If the situation becomes troubling or confusing, ask for a
videotape or sit in. At least one videotape should be reviewed during
the first two months of a rotation.
- Carefully read and examine treatment records. All clinic notes
must be signed off by your major supervisor where appropriate. The
fellow needs the experience of writing treatment notes but the
supervisor is the one ultimately responsible for what is in the medical
record.
- Be alert to seductive behavior and boundary problems in therapy or
the supervisory relationship and deal with them early by clarifying the
professional issues and limits on the relationship. Check with peers or
other supervisors to assess whether you are over reacting or under
reacting.
- Be aware of your own feelings toward your supervisor/supervisee.
What is comfortable, what is not? What is pleasant what is unpleasant?
- Consult with the training director or the agency director about
any strong reactions you have toward your supervisee/supervisor.
Consultation and re-assessment is an important component of learning in
supervision. The psychology fellowship is expected to be a continuing
evaluation of professional development. Learning does not always happen
in an anxiety free environment and is not always effective in high
stress situations.
- Be alert to your own process during the supervisory hour and
during other contacts with your supervisor/supervisee. There are
professional limits in supervision and a close mentor relationship does
not always develop nor necessarily need to occur for the fellow to
learn.
- Be aware of how external (organization/personal) forces influence
your interactions with your supervisor/supervisee. Institutions are
infamous for creating frustration for patients, clients, and
professional staff members. How is the environment influencing your
effectiveness in assisting the patient? What do you or your patient have
control over and how can an eco intervention be more effective if the
patient is allowed to be part of the solution?
Adopted from E. Rodolfa, University of California,
Davis & K. Taylor, Ohio State University, Expanded by J. Baker,
University of Texas Medical Branch