The Importance of Ethics in Clinical Practice Part 7
Supervision
All practising therapists must undergo appropriate clinical supervision. Supervision may be either one to one or in a manageable group.
All trainee psychotherapists are required to undertake formal supervision with a suitably qualified therapist and for the first three years of UKCP Accreditation must also have in place a formal supervsionary in place. Supervision should comprise of a minimum of two hours a month. (Practising Student members must complete one hour of supervision for every eight hours of client contact.)
Case histories should form the basis of supervision and great care should be taken to avoid identifying specific individuals unless there is a good cause for doing so. (Remember the Rule of Seven that puts forward the idea that everyone in the world can be connected through seven separate personal contacts.)
Supervisors should be used to open up other possible ideas for courses of action, to enable the therapist to focus on the case and sometimes to challenge the process and therapy. Supervisors should also be qualified to be supervisors. Just because a practitioner may have seniority within the profession it does not mean that they are a competent clinical supervisor. In my own discipline, I am a qualified supervisor and others like me can be found HERE
Supervisory sessions should also be used to clarify any problem areas, to help with procedural difficulties, to share problems, to help with CPD and to reassure. Correct use of a supervisor ensures that both client and therapist remain safe.
