is good news. With the growth and recognition of the profession, the ethical code will also be standardized in India. Then, all counselors will be made responsible and held accountable for their professional behavior.
and practices translate across cultures and settings. As was observed in relation to an effective response to the AIDS epidemic, all counselors require ongoing support, training and skills development in order to prevent or reduce the impact of burnout, as well as to uphold ethical practices in counseling.
Burnout is the gradual process by which a person, in response to prolonged stress and/or physical, mental and emotional strain, detaches from work and other meaningful relationships. The result is lowered productivity, cynicism, confusion, a feeling of being drained, and a sense of having nothing more to give (Mark Gorkin, stressdoc.com).
Ethical practices and policies are designed to ensure that counselors conduct themselves and provide services in a professional manner. They also help to ensure that both the counselor and the client are protected by establishing guidelines for counselors on issues such as responsibility, anti-discriminatory practices, contracts, setting boundaries, confi dentiality, and competency.
Success in counseling depends on counselors receiving the education, skills, and support required to adequately meet the needs of their communities and clients.
This can be achieved by providing effective counseling supervision mechanisms.
In many countries, there are no individuals trained in counseling supervision, and some countries also have limited numbers of adequately trained psychologists and/
or social workers to take on a role as counseling supervisors.
Numerous developmental models of supervision have been proffered in an attempt to further advance the sound application of supervisory services (Littrell, Lee-Borden, & Lorenz; 1979; Loganbill, Hardy, & Delworth, 1982; Rodenhauser, 1994; Stoltenberg & Delworth, 1987; Watkins, 1995a). Developmental models of supervision have a common, focus on supervisee change from novice to experienced clinician, through a delineated stage process with representative challenges facing supervisees at each level. The characteristics of each stage provides the supervisors with the opportunity to enhance effectiveness through interventions aimed at facilitating further supervisee development (Rando).
In the past two decades, models of psychotherapy supervision, particularly developmental models, have increasingly been proposed; these efforts have provided us with a useful meta-perspective on the supervisory process, stimulated some valuable thought about intervention, stimulated much research about therapist development and supervision, and substantially advanced supervision theory far beyond anything that therapy-based supervision models have contributed (Watkins 1997, p.13) .
The research in this area focuses on “discovering what supervisory interventions work best for which level of trainees, with which characteristics when used by supervisors with what type of experience and which characteristics at what point in time”.
What is Supervisory Training?
Supervisory training is fi eld training for the supervisor so as to increase and improve supervisory competency areas. Whether in an administrative or a clinical setting, supervisory training is needed. Experience alone cannot qualify for supervision.
Border et al., (1991) described supervisory training as the development of a curriculum guide that utilizes three phases of the current professional standards:
Self-awareness
Theoretical and a conceptual knowledge Skills and techniques.
They also outlined seven core curriculum areas that compose effective supervisory education. These areas are as follows:
Models of supervision Counselor development Methods and techniques Supervisory relationship
Ethical, legal, and professional regulatory issues Evaluation
Executive and administrative skills
This model of supervisory training incorporates conceptual, integrated, and experiential elements.
Initial Planning
Prior to the initial supervisory training session, a meeting is needed with the supervisor to provide an overview of the supervisory training sessions. During this initial meeting, background information should be obtained to ensure that the supervisor has the requisite background and interest to participate in the training sessions.
The supervisor should be informed of the anticipated structure and format of the training sessions. Additionally, the supervisor should understand the expectations and the requirements for successful completion of the supervision training. The following topics should be discussed:
The amount of time anticipated for completing the supervisory training Information about who is responsible for the training sessions
Responsibilities for the supervisor in training Overview of evaluation procedures
Clarifi cation of how satisfactorily and unsatisfactory performance will be determined
Confi dentiality issues
Goals
Four major goals guide the planning of supervision training:
to provide a theory or knowledge base relevant to supervisory functioning to develop and a refi ne supervisory skills
to integrate the theory and skills into a working supervisory style to develop and enhance the professional identity of the supervisor.
Need for Supervised Training
Qualities of professional refl ectivity are necessary for trainees to adopt conceptual and interactive skills. Counseling trainees progress through a sequence of defi nitive stages while experiencing increased levels of emotional and cognitive dissonance.
In order to transform dissonant counselor-training experiences into meaningful guides for practice it is necessary to increase conceptual complexity, and articulate the difference between novice and advanced trainees. A trusting and supportive supervisory relationship is a prerequisite for advanced supervisee development
Counselors often fi nd that they experience tension and while coping with complexity, integrating theory into practice, taking on the evaluative role, and increasing awareness of liability and ethical concerns. A comprehensive program of counselor education should include an intensive supervision curriculum in order to avoid some of the problems. Supervised counseling always helps the future counselor to get a reality check on what is in store in the future. Thus there are many counselor supervision models developed to improve the quality of the trainee, as well as the supervisors themselves.
Today’s counselors deal routinely with complicated counseling needs, including cases of severe depression and suicidal ideation, unwanted pregnancy, substance abuse, violence, family problems, problems at work, career issues, personal confl ict situations, sexual identity and child abuse. To respond adequately to these needs, counselors must have strong clinical skills and a keen awareness of the legal and ethical ramifi cations of any actions they may take or fail to take (Barbara Herlihy).
Counselors in these situations may feel stressed and overworked and could experience professional burnout. As a consequence, they may become unsure of their abilities and effectiveness and may experience erosion in their skills and competence. This process runs counter to their ethical responsibility to maintain and increase their competence (Crutchfi eld and Borders, 1997).
Supervision can be an effective means of assisting counselors to maintain and enhance their competence. Supervision can provide opportunities for continuing clinical skill development, ongoing consultation regarding legal and ethical issues, and a professional support system that can mitigate stress and burnout (Barbara
Herlihy). The primary purpose of supervision is to enhance competence and increase counseling skills of the counselor who is being supervised.
The need for clinical supervision in counseling has gone largely unmet.
Nonetheless, it has been observed that supervision enhances effectiveness and accountability, improves counseling skills, encourages professional development, and increases confi dence and job comfort.
One reason due to which clinical supervision has been a neglected issue in counseling may be a perception that counselors do not have the same level of need for supervision as do clinical mental health counselors. In the following section we will understand some models, which are popular educational programs.
Counselor Supervision Models
Supervision norms were typically conveyed indirectly during the rituals of an apprenticeship. As supervision became more purposeful, three types of models emerged. These were: (1) developmental models, (2) integrated models, and (3) orientation-specifi c models.
Developmental models
Developmental models are based on the notion that people grow in fi ts and starts, spurts and patterns. Development of strength and growth areas happens through the combination of experience and hereditary disposition. The object is to maximize and identify growth needed for the future. Continuously identifying new areas of growth is typical of a life-long growth process.
Worthington (1987) reviewed many studies on developmental supervision models and noted that there appeared to be a scientifi c basis for developmental trends and patterns in supervision. The studies revealed that the behavior of supervisors changed as supervisees gained experience, and the supervisory relationship also changed.
The developmental model of Stoltenberg and De lworth (1987)
Their model had three levels of supervisees: Within each level the authors noted a trend to begin in a rigid, shallow, imitative way and move towards more competence, self-assurance, and self-reliance for each level. Particular attention is paid to (1) self- and-other awareness, (2) motivation, and (3) autonomy. They also highlight eight growth areas––intervention, skills competence, assessment techniques, interpersonal assessment, client conceptualization, individual differences, theoretical orientation, treatment goals and plans, and professional ethics. The supervisees are helped to identify their strengths and growth areas enabling them to be responsible for their life-long development as both interventionists and supervisors.
1. Beginning: Where the supervisees are dependent on their supervisors to diagnose/understand/explain client behaviors and attitudes and establish plans for intervention.
2. Intermediate: Where supervisees depend on supervisors for an understanding of diffi cult clients, but would be annoyed at suggestions about others.
Resistance, avoidance, or confl ict is typical of this stage, because supervisee self-concept is easily threatened.
3. Advanced where supervisees function independently, seek consultation when appropriate, and feel responsible for their correct and incorrect decisions.
Integrated models
Eclectic counselors and therapists integrate several theories into consistent practice.
Some models of supervision were designed to be employed with multiple therapeutic orientations. Bernard’s (Bernard and Goodyear, 1992). The Discrimination Model combines three supervisory roles:
1. Teacher: When they directly lecture, instruct, and inform.
2. Counselors: When they assist supervisees in noticing their own “blind spots” or the manner in which they are unconsciously “hooked” by a client’s issue.
3. Colleague (co-therapy situation): They might don a “consultant” role … with three areas of focus for skill building:
1. Process issues examine how the supervisee is making use of the skills of counseling; is communication being conveyed. For e.g., is the supervisee responding to the client’s emotions, is he paraphrasing/reframing well enough, is his attitude helping the client be less resistant?
2. Conceptualization issues include how well supervisees can explain their application of a specifi c theory to a particular case––how well they see the big picture––as well as what reasons supervisees may have for what to do next.
3. Personalization issues pertain to counselors’ use of their persons in therapy, in order that all involved are non-defensively present in the relationship, for e.g., awareness of the effect of their body language on the clients, whether their client is attracted to them, etc.
This model is primarily a training model assuming that each counselor trainee/
supervisee has certain skills, attitude and philosophical orientation. When these are identifi ed the supervisor can gear the interventions to the needs of the supervisee instead of supervisor’s own preferences and learning style.
Orientation-specific models
Counselors who adopt a particular brand of therapy often believe that the best supervision is analysis of practice for true adherence to the “brand” of intervention.
Different theoretical orientations offer different styles for supervision. Eckstein and
Wallerstein described psychoanalytic supervision as occurring in stages such as the following: (1) The supervisee and supervisor eye each other for signs of expertise and weakness. (2) The mid-stage is characterized by confl ict, defensiveness, avoiding, or attacking. (3) The last stage is characterized by a more silent supervisor encouraging supervisees in their tendency toward independence. Behavioral supervision views client problems as learning problems; therefore counseling requires two skills:
(1) identifi cation of the problem, and (2) selection of the appropriate learning technique. Carl Rogers felt that group therapy and a practicum were the core of supervision. The most important aspect of supervision was modeling of the necessary and suffi cient conditions of empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard (Leddick and Bernard, 1980)
Bernard and Goodyear (1992) summarized advantages and disadvantages of psychotherapy-based supervision models. When the supervisee and supervisor share the same orientation, modeling is maximized and theory is more integrated into training. When orientations clash, confl ict or parallel process issues may predominate.
Some specifi c models of counseling supervision:
1. Adaptive supervision in counselor training
Adaptive Supervision in Counselor Training (ASiCT) is based upon Howard, Nance, and Myers’ (1986) adaptive counseling and therapy (ACT) model. This model provides a means for supervisors to match supervisee task readiness with the goal of moving them to the next skill and developmental level.
Supervisee readiness: Supervisee readiness is the supervisee’s willingness, ability, and confi dence in addressing a task related to their role as counselor or supervisee. For example, a supervisee may have a great deal of experience in addressing drug abuse or teenage pregnancy in crisis counseling situations. And thus, this supervisee will have a high degree of readiness when dealing with that situation. However, this supervisee may not have a great deal of experience in dealing with rape or incest victimization. Then the supervisee would have a lesser degree of willingness, ability, and confi dence in addressing the client concern.
The supervisory styles: In order that the effi ciency of process of counseling supervision is maximized the supervisors need to match their methods/interventions to supervisee readiness on a specifi c issue or cluster of issues and move that supervi- see to increased readiness to address those issues in the future.
There are four supervisory styles identifi ed within the ASiCT model which are differentiated by the degree of support and direction given by the supervisor to the supervisee, based upon supervisee readiness. The four styles are as follows:
1. Supportive mentor: When the supervisee is moderately high in readiness the supervisor provides low direction and high support.
2. Teaching mentor: When the supervisee is moderately low in readiness the supervisor provides high direction and maximum support.
3. The delegating colleague: When the supervisee is high in readiness the supervisor provides low direction and low support.
4. Technical director: When the supervisee is low in readiness the supervisor provides less direction and less support.
2. Interpersonal process recall model
Some recent models of counseling supervision have tended to be task oriented, emphasizing such competencies as case conceptualization and the attending skills of the counselor (Craig S. Cashwell). However, attention is also needed to increase counselor self-awareness regarding the therapeutic relationship. Interpersonal process recall (IPR) is a supervision strategy developed by Norman Kagan and colleagues.
This strategy empowers counselors to understand and act upon perceptions to which they may otherwise not attend, e.g., covert thoughts and feelings of client and self and practice expressing them in the here and now without negative consequences, in order to deepen the counselor/client relationship.
In IPR, counselors (and sometimes clients) re-experience the counseling session via videotape or audiotape in a supervision session that can be characterized by a supportive and nonthreatening environment. The supervisor functions as a consultant, taking on the role of inquirer during the IPR session.
The following steps are intended as a guideline for conducting a recall session:
1. The supervisor creates a non-threatening environment, by emphasizing that the purpose of the session is to refl ect on thoughts and feelings of the client and the counselor during the session that will be reviewed and that there is more material in any counseling session than a counselor can possibly attend to.
2. Begin playing the tape; at appropriate points, either person stops the tape and asks a relevant lead to infl uence the discovery process. If the supervisee stops the tape, he/she will speak fi rst about thoughts or feelings that were occurring at that time in the counseling session.
3. During the recall session the supervisee is allowed to explore thoughts and feelings to some resolution (Bernard & Goodyear, 1992).
Inquirer leads: Questions can be worded to enhance supervisees’ awareness of their blind spots at their own level of readiness and capability (Borders & Leddick, 1987). (e.g., focus on client non-verbals versus counselor’s internal reaction to the client). To further an understanding of the inquirer role, the following inquirer
leads are provided from various sources (Bernard & Goodyear, 1992; Borders &
Leddick, 1987; Kagan, 1980):
1. What do you wish you had said to him/her?
2. How do you think he/she would have reacted if you had said that?
3. What would have been the risk in saying what you wanted to say?
4. If you had the chance now, how might you tell him/her what you are thinking and feeling?
5. Were there any other thoughts going through your mind?
6. How did you want the other person to perceive you?
7. Were those feelings located physically in some part of your body?
8. Were you aware of any feelings? Does that feeling have any special meaning for you?
9. What did you want him/her to tell you?
10. What do you think he/she wanted from you?
11. Did he/she remind you of anyone in your life?
3. Use of technology in counseling supervision (Watson) Computer technology has become an important part of our society. It provides users with applications that can simplify several tasks. Counseling professionals can also use this new medium to facilitate their practice. Counselor educators are beginning to acknowledge the value of computer-based applications in the delivery of counseling supervision. The internet is becoming increasingly popular and the use of online, computer-based approaches are becoming more favorable. The counseling profession is beginning to realize the effectiveness of this approach in facilitating the delivery of their services. Researchers have shown that computer usage is becoming an integral part of counseling and counselor training (Lee and Pulvino, 1988).
The use of computers in counselor training is not a totally new concept. Computer applications for training mental health professionals fi rst appeared during the 1960s and were primarily designed to assist in psychiatric interview training (Bellman, Friend, and Kurland, 1966; Starkweather, 1967). In the 1970s and 1980s, counselor educators began to show an interest in computerized training applications. More recently, computers have been used to aid in the delivery of counseling supervision, helping counselor educators train new generations of counseling professionals (Watson). Froehle, (1984) looked at ways computers could be used to monitor student progress in practicum courses which sparked the beginning of supervisors using computer-based applications, to create a more multidimensional approach to their supervision sessions.
Technology can be used at both the practicum and internship stage of counselor development. It can be used to deliver supervision both live and delayed. They can also be used to facilitate more effi cient internship communication when proximity
is an issue computer-based technologies offer several possibilities for supervisors today (Watson) including:
(a) Computer-assisted live supervision: Where immediate feedback is offered.
Supervisors position themselves behind a two-way mirror and observe a session. There is a computer screen in the therapy room which can be seen by the counselor and the supervisor, but not the client, Counselors-in- training can receive immediate feedback and suggestions. The supervisors type their comments on the keyboard, which the student can view and integrate into their counseling repertoire. This can be very useful when the supervisor and supervisee are not in the same location.
(b) Electronic mail (e-mail): Allows for regular contact between clinical supervisors and counselor educators (Casey, et al., 1994; Myrick and Sabella, 1995). The supervisor and supervisee can converse regularly without the constraints of physical proximity thus allowing for a more continuous supervisory experience for the supervisee. The use of e-mail is not restricted to academic settings. Counselors in the fi eld can also access this technology and seek out the supervision they may need (Watson). Here the supervisees give a brief description of the client (while maintaining his or her anonymity), the presenting problem, behaviors or thoughts associated with that problem and any interventions already attempted. They then list questions or concerns they have about this case.
(c) Chat rooms provide real-time communication; Allows individuals to post comments and questions to others in a group and receive feedback or suggestions. Supervisors establish a listing of all group members and their assigned/chosen screen names. And they all meet in a designated chatroom. A real-time discussion forum takes place between supervisor and supervisees. Supervisees are also able to communicate with one another.
A variation of this is the instant messenger services of Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc.
(d) Cybersupervision provides supervisors with the most fl exibility in working with their supervisees. Audio, video equipments provide supervisors and supervisees the opportunity to interact in real time even when they are in different locations. A real-time discussion forum can take place between supervisor and supervisees. Supervisees are also able to communicate with one another and can share written, voice, and image messages. Supervisors can watch video of counseling sessions and offer instant feedback.
Videoconferencing, the key element in cyber supervision, is more secure than e-mail or chat room transcripts that are considered public record and are used extensively in counselor supervision (Casey, et al., 1994; Myrick & Sabella, 1995). Videoconferencing is more secure because it utilizes a closed point-to-point communication system and occurs in real time (Roblyer, 1997).