Clinical Supervision, Consultation, and Training

You’ve got the degree…

…and now, it’s time to start walking this path. Alone?

Not exactly, but it sure can feel that way, even when you have a supervisor.

Clinical supervision is one of the most basic – and fraught – experiences of becoming and being a therapist, evaluator, or consultant. Whatever roles you want to take in the practice of counseling or psychology, supervision is one part of the path everyone has to walk to get there.

You’ve already received supervision, but this time is different. It’s supposed to be the final leg of the journey to “being” a clinician. However, there is no final leg. Supervision and its cousin consultation are something we often go back to again and again throughout our careers.

We come to this work from a place of care because we want that care to be impactful. We want to have more than just an impact – we want it to be the right impact. Because what we do brings into focus both the most beautiful, joyful, nourishing, and inspiring parts of what it is to be a person and the most agonizing, lonely, terrifying, and degrading parts of what it is to be a person.

For all those reasons and more, we need someone to meet us along the way, ensuring we’ve got what we need as we step out on our own. And, sometimes, we need people to return to when we’ve been walking for a while and are looking to find our footing on new ground or rough patches.

Supervision and consultation are fundamentally about relationships.

When you look up the many definitions of supervision, they mostly center on “relationship” as a core element of learning. The relationship is so similar to therapy that we often find ourselves enacting the same kinds of struggles our clients may be having in their relationship with us (and we with them!) right there in the supervision room. And it’s not just the supervisee – we, the supervisors, do it, too!

So, finding someone who makes sense to us, with whom we can feel vulnerable and are willing to risk trusting, is a crucial part of the process. You want someone professional, knowledgeable, and skilled.

Moreover, you want someone whose style of organization, communication, and mentoring meshes with your goals and needs. Perhaps you even want someone who shares some of the foundational values and perspectives you bring when you show up to your clinical work.

Supervision and training are gifts to ourselves.

Supervision involves evaluation, observation, education, and even perhaps correction, as well as supporting and nurturing the growth of supervisees. That can make it feel full of tension and uncertainty on both sides.

It’s also one of the places, along with professional development and consultation, where we can center our passions and interests, nourish ourselves, and grow. It really can be a gift.

I’ll be honest: I love supervision! It’s a way to give back to a field that is a core part of my sense of myself and how I give to the world. You can read a little about my therapeutic orientation and some of my experiences here on the site and on LinkedIn.

I haven’t seen everything by any means, but I’ve been in many settings and worked with a diverse array of clients.

Here’s what I offer you.

In supervision, we identify your priorities, needs, and growth, allowing you to develop comfort with the situations that throw us for a loop – crises, safety concerns, and ethical clashes. Additionally, as a private practice owner and manager, I am happy to offer the use of my office space, testing materials, and focused time on learning the business side of therapy for supervisees who want to include private practice experience in their training.

Supervision is also a place to critically examine how we engage with the profession and our responsibilities to critique our fields’ histories of harm. I am explicit in my commitment to social and environmental justice issues as a part of supervision and clinical and professional training and development.

I value an approach to therapy that is holistic, focused on promoting well-being and mutual flourishing, and relationally situated, bringing systemic and trauma-informed lenses to our understanding of ourselves, our clients, our communities, our relationships, and our profession.

I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me directly through the contact form on this site or via phone, text, or email to set up a consultation.