ASSESSMENT COVER SHEET

Family Name: Given Name(s):

CHOUDHARY ROHIT

Student ID: Course:

1042406 BACHELOR OF COMMUNITY
SERVICES

Unit Code: Unit Name:

COU303 Supervision and Debriefing

Lecturer: Assessment Number/Title:

ESSAY
Dr. Judy Esmond

Semester/Trimester and Year: Word Count:

1732
 Introduction

There are many definitions of clinical supervision in research but for the

purpose of this paper, the definition devised by Kavanagh et al. (2002), found in

Dawson et al. (2012) is given as follows. Clinical supervision, according to them, is

a working alliance between practitioners in which they aim to enhance clinical

practice, fulfil the goals of the employing organisation and the profession and

meet ethical, professional and best practice standards of the organisation and

the profession, while providing personal support and encouragement in

relation to the professional practice (Dawson et al., 2012, p. 93)

Thus, clinical supervision can be seen as means for support for therapists where

they seek to enhance and improve their practice in their professional capacity. The

supervisor helps the supervisee in helping improve the standards of their therapy

sessions with their client. This paper will explore the various ethical factors that

impact professional supervision. Other than that, the paper will also outline a

supervision plan for the given case study by defining contracting, feedback, record

keeping, and evaluation processes that will be used in the supervision of this case

and discussing other details related to trauma supervision.

Issues that Impact Supervision

There are a number of ethical, legal, and organisational issues that may prove

to be negatively impactful for supervision. Generally, supervisors tend to be middle

managers. They often find themselves caught in between satisfying the agency’s

demands and trying to help the consumers and the workers. On top of that, they are

also expected to balance efficiency, fairness, and legality. Such a task can often
prove to be impossible because of various reasons such as dual relationships, duty

to warn, and other ethical and legal problems that arise in supervision.

When therapists work with each other, sometimes relationships develop into

something more than just professional colleagues. They could become close friends

or become involved romantically while they were colleagues and then one of them

becomes promoted to a supervisor and ends up supervising the other. Such dual

relationships can cause a number of ethical concerns and can affect not only the

other relationship but also the quality of supervision. Dual Reamer (2001, 2003,

2005) explores the ethical implications of dual relationships in a supervisor-

supervisee relationship in three articles. For example, the conversation between the

two could become less formal or conversation about the case may happen outside of

the specified environment. Other than that, off-hour calls, exchanging gifts, bartering

goods or providing loans, touching, clinician self-disclosure about something

unrelated to therapeutic exchange, and hiding information from the supervisor could

be few of the issues that may arise from a dual relationship between a supervisor

and supervisee (Reamer, 2001, 2003, 2005). A supervisor needs to be careful of

these red flags and ensure that professional boundaries are not overstepped in case

that any dual relationship exists between them and the therapist. Ideally, the

supervisor should reveal the nature of relationship with the supervisee to the

organisation and see if someone else could fill in the role for the supervisor,

especially if they believe that continuing may impact the quality of supervision.

Apart from dual relationships, another ethical and legal dilemma that can arise

is in the documentation of the supervisory sessions. Reamer (2005) notes the

following about documentation “Careful documentation and record keeping protect

practitioners against allegations of ethical misconduct and professional negligence,

guard clients’ privacy, and facilitate the delivery of high-quality services” (p.326). This

is especially necessary because negligence can turn into legal issues for the

supervisor. The supervisor can be held liable for their staff’s indiscretions if there is

evidence of problems in supervision. This is why accurate and careful documentation

is needed at all times.

Communication Strategies

One of most important factor in a successful supervision session is the

communication strategy employed. Supervisor and supervisee both need to

understand that a conflict may arise in such a setting and effective communication

tools can help mitigate and resolve the conflict for the benefit of both. Farmer (2008)

discuss communication strategies and conflict resolution in relation to supervisor and

supervisee relationship. He stresses that conflict should be seen as normal, on-

going, and inevitable in supervision and both parties should change their attitudes

grounded in cultural, age, status, and gender that may foster avoidance or fear

reactions to a more conducive communication between the two. Supervisors should

facilitate communication in such a way that conflicts are managed in a collaborative

approach rather than adversarial terms (Farmer, 2008). One way to ensure this is to

make use of immediacy in supervisory relationships. Hill & Gupta (2018) conducted

a research on the effect of immediacy in conflict resolution in supervision setting and

found out that immediacy can help resolve many of the important conflicts in such a

setting. Immediacy dictates that the supervisor and the supervisee talk about the

relation then and there during the session (Hill & Gupta, 2018). Thus, immediacy
should definitely be employed as a conflict resolution technique in supervisor-

supervisee relationships.

Supervision Framework

This section will discuss the supervision framework for the case study under

review. The given case study outlines the case of a therapist currently assigned a

group of Iranian asylum seekers who have suffered trauma and torture during their

time in Iran. The therapist has mentioned that he does not have a wide enough

knowledge base to understand the issues faced by his clients and he would like to

increase his abilities to handle such a case.

Goals of the Supervision

For this case, the goal of supervision is clear. The supervisee is not

knowledgeable about trauma counselling and he also knows little about the Iranian

culture. He needs to expand his knowledge about the issues faced by these men. So

the goal is to help Jim increase his knowledge and skills of trauma counselling and

increase his cultural knowledge of Iran and political and sociological aspects of Iran

that might be relevant to the clients’ trauma.

Basics of the Supervision Plan

Firstly, the frequency and duration of meetings would be 10:1 i.e. for every 10

hours of client therapy hours, one hour of supervision would occur every week. Since

the issues clients are dealing with relate to complex trauma, Jim needs a lot of

supervision. Secondly, each meeting would have an agenda that the supervisor

would select in consultation with Jim. Furthermore, the supervision model that will be

applied here would be trauma-informed supervision as outlined by Knight (2018).

Given the challenges of the case, this is the best approach towards supervision

because it allows the supervisor to equip the supervisee with a better understanding

of different types of trauma, response to trauma, and how to empathize with and help

clients who have developed complex trauma. The supervisee will be using

Ecological Trauma Recovery Model first proposed by Harvey (1996). This model

proposes that the therapist should help the trauma victim through interventions

focused on enhancing the victim’s relationship with the community and achieving

ecological fit (Harvey, 1996, p. 3). This model has been effective in helping clients

deal with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, depression, flashbacks, and other

issues arising from trauma.

Moreover, the supervisor will assess Jim’s competencies in the relevant area.

They will assess the level of knowledge and diagnostic skills of Jim in areas of

PTSD, ASD, suicide, anxiety, and depression. Jim’s knowledge about stress buffers,

PTG resiliency, and ability to collaborate with medical doctors and other

professionals would also be under microscope. All of this has been based on

trauma-informed counselling supervision discussed by Jordan (2018).

Control Measures in the Supervision

Each supervision session will be directed at improving Jim’s knowledge and

skills in two areas. Those would be considered as control measures. First area would

be Jim’s knowledge and skills in different issues related to trauma counselling such

as PTSD, anxiety, depression, suicide ideation, and ASD. Second area would be his

knowledge of Iranian culture and understanding of religious and social customs and

traditions that may be relevant to the case.

Key Performance Metrics

 The key performance metrics against which the progress of supervision will

be evaluated are as follows:

1. Jim’s understanding of key areas related to trauma and Ecological Trauma

Recovery Model.

2. Jim’s understanding of Iranian culture.

3. Development of skills related to trauma counselling.

4. Application of attained knowledge in therapy session.

Documentation

As mentioned earlier, documentation is a necessary and important part of

supervision. Important documents should be kept throughout the supervision period.

Contracting helps the supervisor and supervisee both by outlining the terms of

supervision and helps them in knowing what to expect. Sutter et al. (2002)

emphasize on the importance of contracting. They insist that written contracts not

only elucidate the responsibilities and roles of both parties, they also outline the

specific and appropriate ethical guidelines and standards in detail (p. 496). Appendix

1 provides the contracting form that will be used. This contract was devised by Sutter

et al. (2002, p. 497-498).

Feedback and Evaluation

Feedback and evaluation are being discussed together because they are

often closely related. Continuous formative feedback and honest and constructive

evaluation are hallmarks of accomplished supervision efforts. Alfonsson et al. (2017)

note that supervision is helpful in improving the skills of therapists and impacting the

outcomes for the clients. Many researchers have explored the correct process for
taking feedback and evaluation. Heckman-Stone (2004) suggests first to describe

the process of the activity and to set mutually agreed upon criteria to reduce

misunderstanding and miscommunication in supervision. After that, the supervisee

should give self-evaluation before feedback followed by feedback by the supervisor.

Both should outline positive evaluation before negative ones. Finally, the supervisor

should compare the feedback with the objectives and goals described before. This

process of feedback and evaluation, discussed by Heckman-Stone (2004), will be

employed in this case as well.

Conclusion

This essay outlines a supervision framework for the given case study of a

therapist, counselling trauma victims from Iran, who wants guidance on how to

improve his skills and knowledge on the subject with the help of a supervisor. The

essay recommends the Ecological Trauma Recovery Model would be used to help

the clients and supervision will be based on trauma-informed supervision model.

Control measures and key performance metrics are also outlined clearly in the essay

while the documentation process and feedback and evaluation measures are also

explored. The essay also explores the issues that impact supervision and the

communication strategies that are important for a conducive supervisor-supervisee

relationship.
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Appendix 1