Trenton J. Peterson, MA, LMFT
403 Jackson St., #308
Anoka, MN 55303
Office: (763) 712-1903
Fax: 763) 712-1917
Supervision is the practice of mentoring others to increase overall competence in therapy. Over the past few years, I have been supervising individuals who have many different levels of experience as well as needs for supervision. These experiences range from current graduate students with very little experience, to graduate students with several years experience, to clinicians who have been in the field for only a few years, to clinicians who have a significant amount of experience. Through my own therapist experiences I have come to believe that all things are interrelated and connected to each other on multiple levels. As a supervisor as well as in other roles in my life, my actions directly affect the people around me both positively and negatively. If I do not listen to a supervisee, that supervisee might mimic that behavior, and not listen to one of their clients. As a supervisor it is my belief that there needs to be consistency between my therapy and supervision, to keep those connections and interrelations working for me as much as possible. The following ideas are central to my philosophy of supervision.
Theory of supervision
I believe that good supervision and therapy mirror each other. I work from the lens of Narrative Therapy (White & Epston, 1990; Freedman & Combs, 1996; Freeman, J., Epston, D., & Lobovits D. 1997; Morgan, 2000) when seeing clients, and I believe that it is important to stay consistent with Narrative theories in supervision. Kenneth Stewart (1994) states that in a postmodern view of supervision “there is no one story, theory, or set of techniques that constitutes the way to do therapy” (p.12). Although my personal lens for therapy and supervision is predominantly Narrative, I do not impose it on others. According to Gardner, Bobele, and Biever (as cited in Todd and Storm, 2002), postmodern supervision has a process of enhancing the supervisee’s ability to appreciate multiple perspectives (p. 219). I believe that each therapist needs to identify his or her own preferences. As a supervisor, I work with supervisees to develop the skills they need within the particular scope of therapy they have chosen. I believe that individuals ultimately have the answers to their own problems, and as authors of their own lives, will bring unique meaning to those problems. Whether the questions originate from a personal or a professional experience, each individual has the ability to come up with their own answers. Since we are continually learning and growing, we may need to take advantage of the wisdoms that others have in order to make informed decisions. Supervisees may then implement a combination of both insider knowledges, knowing from within, as well as wisdoms from others. By adding the outsider knowledges it allows the process of learning to be done in a collaborative fashion. When I first began supervising, I struggled because I did not want to tell supervisees what to do. This struggle of not wanting to tell supervisees what to do became evident through the mentoring that I received from my own supervision. I found that my position is a privileged one, and that there is some expectation of expertise that needs to be shared in order to help new and developing Marriage and Family Therapists. I have learned that supervisees expect some direction to be provided by their supervisor.
Supervisory Orientation
The majority of the time I work from a position of a flattened hierarchy (Fine, 1993). Harlene Anderson (2000) stated, “Knowledge is not imparted by another or a knower who bestows on a no-knower. Rather, knowledge is fluid and communicable, yet personalized. When we share our knowledge with one another, we cannot know what each brings to the sharing; determine how each will interact with the shared knowledge; nor predict what each will create with it” (p. 8). Supervision, like therapy, is a partnership, and the sharing of knowledge goes both ways. In Narrative Therapy and supervision, there is an understanding and acknowledgement of power, but power is also seen to be flexible. I believe that power is the said or sometimes unsaid placement of authority over another. I have come to believe that there are times that the therapist/supervisor needs to take a position of power in order to prevent harm to the client or supervisee. This is especially true when situations of inappropriate behavior arise, or when there is potential danger to their clients and supervisees. For example, if a supervisee acts in an unethical manner, for example, having a sexual relationship with client, or has other dual relationships that are avoidable, I would intervene. At this point, as the supervisor, I would no longer come from a flattened hierarchy, but instead would execute some authority to protect the client, supervisee, and myself.
Implication of multiple systemic levels
In all areas of a person’s life, personal, professional, spiritual, economic, and social, there are a multitude of systems that are influenced. The world works in systems, and I believe, and practice, as though all things are interconnected. The therapist, supervisee, father/mother, and child, are all independent yet relationally involved in one supervisee’s life. I will work with various aspects of the supervisee’s life in order to support and help them incorporate their strengths as they develop as therapists. I am working with the entire person, and it is important to have clear boundaries with supervisees around issues that are appropriate for supervision and those areas that need to be addressed outside of supervision with their own therapist if necessary. It is not appropriate for the supervisor to conduct therapy with a supervisee. According to Principle 4.2 of the AAMFT Code of Ethics, Marriage and family therapists do not provide therapy to current students or supervisees (2001).
Patterns and sequences at various levels (Isomorphism)
Much of what goes on the supervision room is isomorphic to what is going on in the therapy room. Michael White (1992) addresses the idea of isomorphism in his supervision and training. He believes supervisors should neither subjugate nor marginalize the trainee’s knowledges or experiences. He calls this process “the copying that originates” (p. 93). Supervisees learn by mimicking and doing for themselves. When a supervisee brings something to the supervisor, what happens is that the relationship is shown to parallel what is going on in therapy. It is the job of the supervisor to pay attention to the isomorphic process that may be going on between the supervisor, supervisee, and their clients. For example, if there are problems in supervision such as dealing with problematic behaviors of the supervisee, the supervisee may also be experiencing some sort of problematic behavior with their clients. When addressed effectively in supervision, parallel process often allows the supervisee to work more effectively with their clients. Behan (2003) stated that he brings the isomorphic process into practice by trying to regularly interview his supervisees about how their work is impacting their lives. What is learned on that level again illustrates the parallel process of supervision and therapy. I use many of these ideas from White (1992) and Behan (2003) around interviewing the supervisee regarding their insider knowledges about their clients. This assists them in accessing their knowledge instead of just giving them my impressions.
When working with clients of another culture, race, gender, and/or socioeconomic status, I believe it is important to understand those differences, and then work with them as to attain more successful outcomes. This is important for several reasons. As I stated earlier, people are part of systems, and they have influences that come from multiple aspects. I see it as important for myself, to know or gain an understanding of the place where my client or supervisee is coming from. Gaining understanding and taking into consideration the culture, race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status helps to create a richer understanding of the individual’s life and what that individual brings to the table. That understanding is also important in supervision. The Narrative lens is one that looks at people in communities. Supervision is also seen in communities. Narrative supervision acknowledges the influence of an individual’s personal wisdoms, which will be brought into supervisee’s work via their own cultural influences. It is important to look at all influences that could impact the different layers of supervision. Working from a straight, white, heterosexual male position, there is great deal of influence that I need to pay attention to due to the privileged position that I have in most areas of life. It is also important to pay attention to what is going on for my supervisees in relationship to my characteristics, as well as to pay attention to the surrounding cultural influences that may be impacting the therapeutic/supervisory relationship.
Moreover, the work that is done between the supervisor and supervisee, again, should help to foster appropriate work between the therapist and the client. For example, if I am supervising an American Indian trainee, who does not recognize how his sense of male privilege is impacting the work that he is doing with a female client, I would address it a couple of ways. First, I would talk to him about his experience of privilege or lack of privilege, and how he has experienced it. I would then talk about my privilege as a heterosexual white male. Then I would talk to him about his own privilege as a male, and how he might see the influence that privilege has on the relationship he has with his clients. Finally, I would ask him to consider this privilege, and how it might affect other relationships. By addressing this issue, the supervisee would be able to experience the ideas of privilege through our conversation (isomorphism), understand the multitude of levels that the supervisee needs to look at in relationships, and embrace the diversity of understanding needed to work with people.
I believe that it is important for me as the supervisor to be well aware of the supervisee’s personal values, beliefs, and experiences that influence the supervisory process. It is important to recognize how personal opinions might be helpful or harmful to your supervisee. The supervisor comes from a place of power, and many times has multiple relationships with their supervisees. For example, there are times that a supervisor may provide clinical supervision and administrative supervision, teacher and supervisor, teacher and co-therapist, etc. Having these dual roles creates a complicated power differential between the supervisor and supervisee. Although this is a common aspect of supervision the AAMFT code of ethics Principle 4.1 (AAMFT, 2001), strongly encourages limiting multiple relationships when possible. It is my job as the supervisor to be clear about my expectations with supervisees regarding multiple roles, and how I will address them. These multiple relationships are manageable and are viewed as a very effective form of supervision. Sectioning the supervision time based on the roles that the supervisor embraces is very helpful to the process of supervision. I begin supervision by first checking in with the supervisee. Then I check to see how the supervisee would like to spend the rest of the supervision time. After check-in, I will introduce topics that I may need to address during the supervision time. Then we move in to addressing individual cases or particular issues in therapy. Clearly, certain multiple relationship are not appropriate, for example, receiving therapy from supervisor, and sexual relationships with supervisees (Kantor, D., Mitchell, E., Pillemer, J. T., and Slobodnik, A. , 1992 p. 16).
Personal values, beliefs, life experiences, and theoretical assumptions
I believe that supervision and therapy are equally challenging. In my role as a supervisor my personal values will become evident. When personal values are presented to supervisees, it is very important to clearly identify that they are my personal values and they are not the specific ways in which the supervisee needs to work or believe, but rather reference points to go by. A supervisee can expect that my personal experiences will be shared in order to give a supervisee insight into options of ways of working. Although, the sharing of personal experiences in therapy may somewhat bias the client, when it is shared with a supervisee, I believe it gives them options to work from. If a client or supervisee asks me the question, “what would you do?” I would first ask for their personal insights, I would then share how I might work in the requested situation. There are plenty of hot topics that could create problems for new supervisees; my clients and supervisees need to know that they can come to me without condemnation or disapproval.
Supervisor/supervisee relationship
The relationship that a supervisee has with me is much like that of the therapist/client relationship. Although there are similarities, like the relationship of one individual going to a supposed expert for help, there are also differences. For example, I do not conduct therapy with the supervisee, it is important that I refer the supervisee for therapy if those types of personal issues arise. It is important to pay attention to the power that is involved, and how to most ethically use that power. I do not believe that it is my role to impose my personal beliefs upon anyone. I want to invite people to consider the possibilities of the things that I may know about, or may have been told about, through some other resource in both supervision and therapy. This practice can work very well with supervision.
Summary
In conclusion, my belief about supervision mirrors Behen’s (2003) process. I, as a supervisor, cannot avoid a position of power. As such, I must be careful to use power to support the supervisee’s development. It is my role as the supervisor to give support and guidance to a new supervisee by showing him or her how to handle important ethical situations, drawing out the therapist’s confidences, and challenging areas that need growth, and doing so as collaboratively and respectfully as I can.
Works cited
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). (2001). AAMFT Code of Ethics. Washington, DC: Author.
Anderson, Harlene (2000). “Supervision as a Collaborative Learning Community. AAMFT Supervision Bulletin. Fall 2000. Reproduced in Reading of Family Therapy Supervision. AAMFT, Washington DC, 2000.
Behen, C. (2003). Some Ground to Stand on: Narrative Supervision. Journal of Systemic Therapies, Vol.22:4, pp. 29-42.
Fine, M. (1993). Collaboration in Supervision: Flattening the Supervision Relationship. AAMFT Supervision Bullentin. Vol. VI, No. 2, pp. 19-20. Summer 1993. Reproduced in Readings of Family Therapy Supervision. AAMFT, Washington DC, 2000.
Freedman, J. & Combs, G. (1996). Narrative Therapy: The Social Construction of preferred realities. New York: Norton.
Freeman, J., Epston, D., & Lobovits D. (1997). Playful Approaches to Serious Problems: Narrative Therapy with Children and Their Families. Wiley.
Morgan, A. (2000). What is Narrative Therapy? An easy-to-read introduction. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publication.
Todd, T. C. & Storm, C. L. (eds.) (2002). The Complete Systemic Supervisor: Context, Philosophy, and Pragmatics. New York: Authors Choice Press.
Kantor, D., Mitchell, E., Pillemer, J. T., & Slobodnik, A. (1992). Drawing the Line? An issue for all Supervisors. AAMFT Supervision Bulletin. Vol. V, No.2, pp. 16-18. June 1992. Reproduced in Readings of Family Therapy Supervision. AAMFT, Washington DC, 2000.
Stewart, K. (1994). Postmoderism and Supervision. AAMFT Supervision Bulletin. Vol. VII. No. 3. Fall 1994. Repoduced in Reading of Family Therapy Supervision. AAMFT, Washington DC, 2000.
White, M. (1992). Family therapy Training and Supervision in a world of experience and narrative. In D. Epston & M.
White, Experience, contradiction, narrative and imagination. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwiche Centre Publications.
White, M. & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to Therapeutic Ends. New York: Norton.
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