Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

August 5, 2016 By Admin

Effective Clinical Supervision

Effective Clinical Supervision

Perhaps other than the mental health status of the therapist and her/his ethical clinical skills, there is no more important variable in successful clinical work than effective CLINICAL supervision.  I emphasize “clinical’ because in today’s bureaucratic systems, so much supervision tends to be about required procedures like utilization level, reporting requirements, and documentation for services rendered. There is nothing wrong with including these areas – as well as ethics and liability reduction – but this is NOT pure clinical supervision. In my over 35-year career as a clinical supervisor I have tried to maintain a few guidelines to clinical supervision-mindful happinesskeep my clinical oversight on target: good clinical supervision and at least adequacy in other areas bureaucratic practices. I have emphasized three areas of supervisory practice: the relationship, the balance between task-maintenance activities, and the “Triadic Model” of supervision. The ultimate importance of the supervisory relationship is obvious; it parallels a good clinical alliance between therapists and their clients.  Balancing task activities (bureaucracy) and maintenance activities (psychosocial support for the helper’s emotional health) is an ever-present challenge for clinical supervisors. The Triadic Model of clinical supervision, above all other approaches I have used, has in my opinion resulted in the best outcomes for me, my supervisees, and their clients.  This model integrates three areas of supervision: teaching evidence-based therapy skills (so you need know them), ethically matching such clinical skills to the supervisee’s abilities and their individual client’s conditions, and the emotional functioning of the supervisee (perhaps the single most important variable of all). With this as a foundation, I will now review what current research has to say about effective clinical supervision.

Effective Clinical Supervision includes:

  1. Advancing the personal and clinical growth of the supervisee;
  2. A positive working alliance in the supervisory relationship;
  3. Establishing effective empathy with reflection as a way to develop a “secure base” for the supervisee;
  4. Mutually-derived supervisory goals and processes;
  5. Encouraging supervisee autonomy and self-direction within limits;
  6. Attuned attention to the supervisee’s needs;
  7. Open, non-defensive clinical discussion about clients, their clinical conditions, skills, ethics, etc.
  8. Clarity in the supervisor’s clinical and interpersonal competence;
  9. A reality that the supervisor is skilled in several evidence-based therapy practices;
  10. Mutual respect and comfort in the process;
  11. Careful exploration of personal issues that may impede client and supervisee progress;
  12. Very selective self-disclosure related to client and supervisee outcomes;
  13. Ethical practice with clients’ interests and liability reduction in mind;
  14. Multicultural competence;
  15. Good clinical case formulations;
  16. Understanding and being able to deal with transference and countertransference processes;
  17. Clinical demonstration and role play of effective clinical skills, including the alliance;
  18. Practical and useful scientific viewpoints about therapy – knowing the clinical literature;
  19. Direct meaningful feedback to the supervisee regarding their progress or lack thereof;
  20. Formal evaluation based on goals of the supervision; and,
  21. Periodic supervisory supervision of the clinical supervisor.

Ineffective Clinical Supervision Includes:

  1. Any number of deficits related to the effectiveness characteristics noted above;
  2. Weak supervisory competence (clinical and supervisory);
  3. Devaluing and depreciating supervisory practices;
  4. Poor supervisory relationship;
  5. Weak clinical case formulations;
  6. Over-dependence on task/administrative activities in supervision;
  7. Poor skill as a trainer and therapist – not knowing what works best and why; and,
  8. Supervisor’s mental and emotional issues (especially personality, traumatic, mood, and addiction problems) that impede clinical development of the supervisee.

Note: By listing the ideal conditions of effective clinical supervision, I in no way imply that I utilized ALL of the positive characteristics in my own clinical supervision. That said, however, I know I utilized many of them as a conscious and mindful supervisory practice.

This post is based on many supervision practice and research sources. For a comprehensive review of research on clinical supervision refer to Ladany, N., Mori, Y. and Mehr, K. E. (January, 2013). Effective and ineffective supervision. The Counseling Psychologist, 41(1), 28-47

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

CLICK HERE  or any image below to Order 

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

MindfulHappiness_Amazon           mindful-happiness_barnes_and_noble

Filed Under: Clinical Supervison, Featured Tagged With: CLINICAL SUPERVISION, EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION, INEFFECTIVE SUPERVISIION, THE TRIADIC MODEL

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

Healing Meditations for Destructive Emotions Based on the mountain of research supporting the use of regular meditation practices and yoga, it is safe to say that Buddhism and its practices have merged with modern scientific investigation. From the early days of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (the MBSR of Jon Kabat-Zinn) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (the DBT […]

Honoring First Nation – Native American Spirited-Wisdom American First Nation or Native American People (according to how they wish to be named) have  a strong spiritual traditions honoring life, the earth and the heavens.  Naming these wise peoples is a problem; out of respect one would call them First Nations, Native American, or a specific […]

Mediation:  Conscious or Not? A true, in depth understanding about what human consciousness is and how it works has eluded mind and brain scientists for many years.  A few very interesting ideas have been presented by Stuart Hameroff, professor emeritus and director of the University of Arizona’s Center for Consciousness Studies. Consciousness rests in the […]

From The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation, Monkton, Vermont – Five Breathing and Meditation Practices – Attention and concentration on the breath are common practices to attune meditation capacity. We use the breath as an object of attention in our mind training.   The better your quality of attention and concentration, the better […]

Attitudes of Gratitude Thoughts and Applications M. J. Ryan presents some interesting practices in the book, Attitudes of Gratitude (1999).  Here are some ideas. Hope you will practice some of them soon. As The 14th Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh suggest, we should always appreciate the preciousness and miracle of human life – our own life no matter what […]

Self-Medication:  Is Your Hand-Held Device a  Dopamine Device?   Mindfulness Activities: Here is a simple activity that may inform you about your personal level of addiction to your digital/electronic devices. Simply click the link below to download the PDF Worksheet;   answer each question according to your personal opinions.  Dr-Anthony-Quintiliani_HandHeldDeviceActivity Be sure to complete the meditation activity […]

Spiritual Mantras from Buddhism Spiritual Mantras:  Mantra practice is certainly not informal Buddhism, nor is it a way to apply practical mindfulness skills to life.  The path of mantra practice is much deeper than the psychological applications for good health. Mantra practice is a highly important part of formal Buddhist practice, especially on the spiritual […]

Happiness #5 – Last Post on Characteristics This will be my last post for a while on the important topic of happiness.  Here I will hit a few highlights about simple joy and lasting inner experiences of true happiness. Simple Joy – We experience simple joy in simple experiences, small sometimes subtle events in our […]

 A Practice To  Help Prevent Alzheimer Disease Kirtan Kriya meditation is part of the ancient Kundalini yoga tradition.  Current clinical research dealing with prevention of Alzheimer disease supports its use in medical meditation.  As G. Harrison (The Beatles fame) noted: As you move attention beyond yourself, you may find peace of mind is there.  Sanskrit root […]

Gurdjieff’s The Fourth Way Meditations: A way of Being and Knowing Although Gurdjieff developed a whole way of being and knowing, including attentional practices, dance/body movements, group processes, and meditations here I will focus only on some of the suggested meditations.  In particular, I include the meditations noted by his primary student (J. DeSalzmann, 2011). […]

The Failed “War on Drugs” – Let’s Try Treatment On Demand and Fund It The New York based Drug Policy Alliance (drugpolicy.org) and other sources have provided some important information about our failed drug and alcohol policies. Here are a few astounding facts.  The United Stares has about 5% of the world’s population, but it […]

Vipassana Meditation Practice – Introductory Journey 1 This is the first of a series of posts on vipassana-based meditation practices.  The introductory journey set will not be pure vipassana; rather this set of meditations will be about practice with core principles and learning experiences in regular vipassana meditation. Rather than explain background information, I will […]

Mindful Happiness – Brain on Meditation Reports from various MRI and self-report measure studies support the proposition that your brain changes (neuronal plasticity) when you practice meditation on a regular (daily) basis.   The same is likely true when you practice yoga on a regular basis. Here are some noted changes in brain functioning that […]

Mindful Solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Earth Protectors The Standing Rock Sioux earth protectors are fighting earth destruction, environmental degradation, oil profiteering, and corporate greed.  Yes, I suppose finding huge reserves of crude helps many people become employed in the Dakotas. This is important. But other earth-wise activity (more solar for example) would be far […]

Forgiveness Meditation Practice – Mindful Happiness – Dr Anthony Quintiliani Sit comfortably in a meditation posture. Allow your breath to remain natural without any intentional modification.  Allow your body to relax, and allow your mind to be open to and to expect forgiveness.  Focus attention on your heart area deep within your soul, and allow […]

Concentration, Contentment, and Loving Kindness I have written various entries on concentration meditations in prior posts.  Yes, concentration meditation is beyond pure mindfulness meditation.  Here I will present briefly two other forms of meditation that are quite intentional and also beyond mindfulness: contentment and loving kindness meditations. Let’s begin with intentional meditation of contentment. Contentment […]

Tips for Improving Your Mindfulness Practices The following practices may improve your mindfulness skills.  It all depends – it all depends on whether or not you will do regular, daily practices.  If you desire to improve your mindfulness skills, consider following the tips noted below.  Most of the practices below involve sitting meditation.  Likewise, regular […]

Being Mindful Of  Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Recently I receive a heart-felt tribute dedicated to Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, who died recently.  The tribute originated from Louise Hay, a long-time associate, colleague and publisher of Wayne Dyer.  To those of us who inhabit the spaciousness of the spiritual world, perhaps, no other person in recent […]

  My blog site mindfulhappiness.org has many posts on meditation, Buddhism, education, clinical practices and self-activated emotional health practices.  Perhaps you may wish to initiate a Reflective Journal practice after you do practices presented on the site.  There are many  benefits from maintaining a written journal about personal experiences and practices.  Not only does a […]

  How Most People Learn in Psychotherapy It is highly important that clients learn from their therapists.  In most cases this includes alternative ways of thinking, emoting, and behaving. So what can we learn from educational research on how people learn? Of course we all know it begins with a solid therapeutic alliance – the […]

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2023 · Mindful Happiness