What is the importance of a clinical supervision log?
It’s complicated.
So let’s see if we can unpack this a bit. The interested audience here is generally UK and US though others may be taking supervision training through Online Therapy Institute as well.
For the purposes of this post, I am focusing on two organizations:
- British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) United Kingdom
- Center for Credentialing and Education (CCE) United States
Let’s start with BACP
Generally, the BACP recommends the following for choosing a clinical supervisor:
Your supervisor should be sufficiently experienced in counselling and psychotherapy, or a closely related field, and ideally have some training and qualifications in supervision.
You should have a contract with your supervisor to cover practical arrangements such as fees and the length and frequency of sessions. The supervisor’s role and responsibility should be clearly discussed and included in the contract.
(excerpted from https://www.bacp.co.uk/membership/registered-membership/guide-to-supervision/)
In addition, BACP offers professional standards for supervision training. Their Counselling Supervision Training Curriculum is a curriculum framework for counselling supervisor training. These are recommended standards.
The Clinical Supervision Series 1 & 2 covers these educational standards but does not offer a live supervision component to training which is recommended in the professional standards as follows:
For a graduate certificate, in addition to coursework:
- Minimum 20 hours of logged counselling supervision practice – students will need to be offering counselling supervision
- Minimum five hours of logged consultative supervision
- Minimum one recording of counselling supervision practice (10 minutes) transcribed with process comments
For a graduate diploma, in addition to coursework:
- Minimum 40 hours of logged counselling supervision practice – students will need to be offering counselling supervision
- Minimum 10 hours of logged consultative supervision
- Minimum one recording of counselling supervision practice (10 minutes) transcribed with process comments
Some countries and professional organizations have different recommendations and regulations so be sure to check with your governing body.
Now let’s discuss CCE
CCE requirements in the US are a bit different. In addition to the required coursework, a candidate for the Approved Clinical Supervisor credential must have earned a minimum of a master’s degree and a state license/certificate. The clinician must have 5 years post master’s clinical experience equaling at least 4000 hours of counseling experience plus documentation of at least 100 hours of providing clinical supervision to counselors and/or counselors in training.
Some states have different requirements so be sure to check with your licensing board.
Summary
In summary, the BACP recommends additional proof of hours while CCE requires additional proof of hours.
The BACP’s Counselling Supervision Training Curriculum sets forth supervision competencies based on the UCL (University College London) Supervision of Psychological Therapies competence framework, supplemented by recommendations from the University of Leicester’s evaluation of the framework (commissioned by BACP in 2011).
CCE’s Approved Clinical Supervisor credential training is based on the following content areas
- Roles and functions of clinical supervisors
- Models of clinical supervision
- Mental health-related professional development
- Methods and techniques in clinical supervision
- Supervisory relationship issues
- Cultural issues in clinical supervision
- Group supervision
- Legal and ethical issues in clinical supervision
- Evaluation of supervisee competence and the supervision process
The Clinical Supervision Series Parts 1 & 2 through Online Therapy Institute meets the recommended training for BACP and the required training for CCE as well as certain state requirements as well as the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario in Canada.
Add Clinical Supervision Series Part 3 to Parts 1 & 2 (or training equivalent) and you qualify as a Certified Clinical Cyber Supervisor through Online Therapy Institute.
Conclusion
Online Therapy Institute recommends that clinical supervisors in training and post training keep a record/log of their supervision hours. Use a log to record
- Clinical/Peer supervision received by you regarding your therapist role
- Supervision/consultation received by you regarding your supervisor role
- Clinical/Peer supervision you facilitate
Download this Clinical Supervision Log
This word doc can be download and is sufficient for all three purposes. In addition, you can list the method of delivery- email, chat, audio, video, in-person, virtual).
