Kreider Consulting, LLC

Preparing for Clinical Supervision Meetings

My experience is that you will get the most out of supervision by coming to each meeting prepared to address specific questions related to your learning about clinical practice. Since the purpose of supervision is to help you develop clinical competence so that you can practice independently, your active participation in focusing on your "growing edge" will be very important. Please come to each meeting prepared to focus on two or three specific clients and/or any related professional development questions that arise in your practice. If you are unsure what to focus on, you might find Possible Questions for Clinical Supervision to be helpful.

In particular, I ask that you prepare for each supervision meeting by identifying the following:
What are you hoping to learn or figure out that you want me to help you address in this supervision meeting? (This might involve questions related to clinical practice, professional ethics, service delivery system related issues, developing professional identity, and so on.)

What specific questions do you have that you want me to address in this supervision meeting? (This might involve questions about assessment and engagement, or how to help related to unique client characteristics; contextual issues that effect addressing a client's needs; professional use of self issues (e.g. "transference" and "counter-transference"); resolving ethical dilemmas; crisis/risk management issues; and so on. Keep in mind that BSRB's focus is on "diagnosis and treatment".)

What information (about the client, the issue being addressed, or the context of what the client is working on) is specifically relevant to addressing your questions for this meeting? (It is impossible to know, let alone cover, everything related to one's work with a given client-situation. It is important to develop skill at identifying what is the most relevant information to address at any given point in time so that one can learn their way forward in professional helping, one step at a time.)