The aim of today’s article is to explore the scope of Single Session Supervision and the guidelines useful for carrying out this process of professional support defined by Pam Rycroft (2018), psychologist , family psychotherapist who works at the Bouverie Centre in Melbourne (Australia).
Clinical supervision , as we know, is a crucial component of a therapist’s journey from the moment they begin their training to the consolidation of their practice. Supervision conversations invite clinicians to reflect on their practice , promote the development of professional skills, and foster the achievement of positive outcomes for clients (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, 2014).
How many forms of supervision are there?
There are two main categories of supervision activities: administrative and clinical supervision (Harper -Jaquas, 2018).
How are they different?
Administrative supervision involves reviewing and discussing an organization’s productivity metrics and documentation.
Clinical supervision , on the other hand, is defined as a working alliance that is achieved through an ongoing process between professionals aimed at improving knowledge , skills and judgement , aimed at supporting the clinician and indirectly the client (Addiction and Mental Health Clinical supervision Group, 2013).
What is clinical supervision for?
There are many descriptions of supervision, but no universally accepted definition. However, there are frameworks that outline its various functions and roles in different contexts of application. The most frequently cited functions are normative , formative and restorative , which respectively represent the concepts of responsibility , professional development and support . Recently, however, much emphasis has also been given to the process of learning and experiential reflection in supervision, adding the educational function to the three above-mentioned functions (Rycroft, 2018).
How does supervision generally occur?
Supervision develops through a sequential process as it happens in a long-term therapeutic path . The many existing models of supervision are united by the sharing of the qualities necessary to be good supervisors and carry out good supervision, more rarely the authors have stopped to analyze the elements that influence the best use of the supervision hour .
Therefore, the question we ask ourselves at this point is “ As with single-session therapy, is it possible to conceive of a type of meeting in which, by adopting a “single-session mentality”, we can maximize its effectiveness regardless of the number of sessions carried out?
The answer is obviously yes and below we will see how this is possible!
What is the format of a single session supervision?
The single-session supervision format developed by Pam Rycroft (2018) is divided into three segments :
- Exposition (introducing context; focusing on a main theme; staying on track).
- Development (understanding problems, attempted solutions, constraints and resources).
- Summary (therapist’s reflection on his thoughts, ideas, possibilities and listening to the client).
These three segments include nine different sections that we will see in detail:
Context setting, connection, contraction:
- Share the process.
- Understanding the supervisee’s context, values.
- Negotiating a good outcome: “Could this be the most useful outcome possible?”
- Finding a focus:
- Listening to “the story” at work.
- Determine the particular aspect to focus on: “What are the clinical problems?”
- Negotiate how to proceed.
- List of possible choices.
- Staying on Track/Checking In:
- “Are we talking about what we need to focus on or are we going off track?”
- “Can I just verify with you that this is where we need to go? Is this helpful? Can you let me know if there’s anything I’m missing?”
- Investigation of intervention attempts:
- (Keep attention on the appropriate aspect.)
- Listening to supervisees’ resources: “Of everything you’ve tried, what went well and what didn’t go so well?”
- “Looking back, is there anything you would do differently? Or that you wouldn’t change?”
- “What do you know about yourself/your client that tells me you’re ready to try something different?”
- Review / Transition:
- “Before I tell you what I’m thinking, is there anything else I need to know that you think might be helpful to you?”
- “Have I understood your problems so far? Is there anything I haven’t asked you, but should have?”
- Reflection:
- Offer your thoughts as openly as possible (keeping in mind the desired outcome) and keeping in mind both the support and the challenge!
- Listening to supervisee feedback:
- “Is there something I said that doesn’t sit well with you? Tell me how it affects you!”
- Check-in and closing:
- How close did we get to what you hoped for?”
- “Any final questions/concerns?” “What will you take away?”
- Return to the first point as in a circular process: the aim of returning to the issues presented by the supervisee and the desired outcome, “closing the circle”. This allows us to take up some issues that have remained pending and negotiate their revisitation ( Rycroft, 2018).
Conclusion
Clinical supervision is a fundamental moment for the professional who finds himself carrying out a job based on the helping relationship , influencing his well-being and indirectly that of the client. Being able to benefit from such support makes our profession an even more precious asset, therefore introducing the single-session mentality in this area can only bring advantages. The latter will concern the supervisors who will not have to abandon the basic models that inspire them to conduct their work, maximizing their effectiveness and the supervisees who will be able to consider it a more accessible and adaptable tool to the different contexts in which they will require it.
Angelica Giannetti
Psychologist, Psychotherapist
Team of the Italian Center
for Single Session Therapy
Bibliography.
Addiction and Mental Health Clinical supervision Group, (2013). Clinical Supervision and practice supports for an integrated service delivery system : A guidance framework . Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Alberta Health Services.
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (2014). Approved supervisordesigation: Standards handbook. Washington, DC: Author.
Cannistrà, F., & Piccirilli, F. (2018). Single-Session Therapy: Principles and Practices . Giunti Editore.
Talmon, M. (1990). Single-session therapy: maximizing the effect of the first (and often only) therapeutic encounter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Rycroft, P. (2018). Capturing the moment in Supervision. In Hoyt, M. F., Bobele, M., Slive, A., Young, J., Talmon, M. (2018). Single – Session Therapy by Walk-In or Appointment: Administrative, Clinical, and Supervisory Aspects of One – at- a – Time Services . New York: Routledge.
Harper -Jaquas, S. (2018). Supervising Single-Session Therapists. In Hoyt, M. F., Bobele, M., Slive, A., Young, J., Talmon, M. (2018). Single – Session Therapy by Walk-In or Appointment: Administrative, Clinical, and Supervisory Aspects of One – at- a – Time Services . New York: Routledge.