A Synthesis Of Supervision Definitions Proposed By Lambie...

Clinical counseling supervision has an integral role in the professional and personal development of counselors-in-training, referred to here as supervisees. Many definitions of the term supervision exist in counselor education literature and most researchers agree that supervision in and of itself is an intervention (Bernard Goodyear, 2014). A synthesis of supervision definitions proposed by Lambie and Sias (2009) best describes my view of supervision and role as clinical supervisor: Supervision is defined as a process in which an experienced professional holding appropriate preparation, degree, licensure, and/or certification provides consistent support, instruction, and feedback to a counselor-in-training, fostering his or her†¦show more content†¦By fulfilling these responsibilities, I ensure the provision of ethical services and ultimately safeguard the welfare of clients, the second major purpose of supervision. Theoretical Underpinnings There are three overarching categories of clinical supervision models, psychotherapy-based models, developmental models, and process models (Bernard Goodyear, 2014). My approach to supervision utilizes a combined model that integrates two established models from the process and developmental categories. Specifically, I operate from a model that fuses the Discrimination Model (process) and the Systemic Cognitive-Developmental Supervision Model (developmental). The Discrimination Model (DM) Developed in the mid-1970s, Bernard’s (1997) Discrimination Model (DM) assists supervisors in choosing the most appropriate response to supervisees based on three foci and three supervisor roles. The three foci areas concentrate on skill building and include process/intervention, conceptualization, and personalization (Leddick, 1994; Bernard Goodyear, 2014). Issues of process/intervention examine supervisees’ observable counseling skills such as reflection of feelings or exploration of ambivalence during counseling sessions (Luke Bernard, 2006). The second foci reference case conceptualization that entails supervisees’ ability to synthesize client behaviors, thoughts, and emotions to inform the use of appropriate interventions (Falvey,